Kline & Specter Wins $175 Million Roundup Cancer Verdict Against Monsanto

Ernest Caranci kept his Philadelphia lawn and garden in order for a quarter century. From 1989 to 2014 he sprayed Roundup two or three times a week, going through more than 500 gallons of the weed killer, and he did it without gloves, a mask, or any other protective gear. Monsanto, which made the product, never recommended such precautions on the label. Caranci was later diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. His claim centered on glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, and whether long exposure to it had caused his disease.

Kline & Specter took the case to trial in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, with Thomas R. Kline as co-lead counsel alongside Texas attorney Jason Itkin. It was the first Roundup trial held in Philadelphia, and it ran three weeks before a 12-person jury. The plaintiffs argued failure to warn. Monsanto knew, or should have known, that glyphosate carried a cancer risk, yet it sold Roundup for home use without a warning and without advising users to protect themselves. The defense maintained that glyphosate is safe and that regulators had repeatedly cleared it. Caranci, 83 at the time of the verdict, was undergoing treatment for the fourth recurrence of his cancer.

On October 27, 2023, the jury found for Caranci and awarded $175 million. The award broke down into $25 million in compensatory damages and $150 million in punitive damages, a measure of how the jury judged Monsanto's conduct. The company fought the result. It moved to overturn or cut the award, arguing in part that a court officer had improperly pushed the deadlocked jury toward a decision. The trial judge rejected those arguments, kept the $175 million in place, and added roughly $2.3 million in delay damages.

Caranci's case was one of several Roundup trials Kline & Specter carried to a jury in Philadelphia, and the firm won larger awards in later trials, including a $2.25 billion verdict in January 2024. His remained the city's first finding of liability against Monsanto over the weed killer. When the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the judgment in May 2025, the award still stood at $175 million.