A California judge says a groundskeeper's lawsuit against Monsanto can proceed and the jury can consider evidence that the company suppressed evidence of the risks of its weed-killing products.

This comes in the case of 46-year old DeWayne Johnson, whom doctors say has months to live.  As a groundskeeper for the Benicia Unified School district outside San Francisco where he applied numerous treatments of Monsanto's Round-Up brand herbicide to school properties from 2012 until at least late 2015.  Now, 80 percent of his body is covered by cancerous lesions, which he claims were caused by the glyphosate in Round-Up.

Monsanto's own memos are part of Johnson's claim.

"The internal correspondence noted by Johnson could support a jury finding that Monsanto has long been aware of the risk that its glyphosate-based herbicides are carcinogenic," wrote Judge Curtis Karnow in his ruling (.pdf link).  The company allegedly "continuously sought to influence the scientific literature to prevent its internal concerns from reaching the public sphere and to bolster its defenses in products liability actions," said the judge, "Thus there are triable issues of material fact."

More than 400 people are suing Monsanto in US District Court in San Francisco claiming that alleging exposure to Roundup caused them, or their loved ones, to develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL).  Another case is scheduled for trial in October in Saint Louis, Missouri, Monsanto's home town.

Monsanto denies this, maintain its products are safe, and will come to court armed with an EPA draft risk assessment of glyphosate which concludes that the weed killer is not likely carcinogenic.