Lyon (AFP)
"A great deliverance after 14 years!" Exclaims in a weary voice Paul François after the rejection by the Court of Cassation of the appeal formed by Monsanto, the epilogue of a legal marathon started in 2007 by this farmer intoxicated by the Lasso herbicide.
The Court of Cassation rejected on Wednesday the appeal formed by the subsidiary of the German group Bayer, which finalizes its conviction in the case against Mr. François, intoxicated after inhaling in 2004 vapors of the herbicide Lasso marketed by Monsanto.
Fourteen years of proceedings, "it's a very long time," Paul François told AFP, who waited for the decision of the Court of Cassation surrounded by his family.
"I'm not doing very well at the moment, he confides modestly. I didn't have the strength to go to Paris."
"It is not quite finished since there is still the compensation procedure" which he wishes "fast".
After the dismissal of the appeal, Justice must indeed rule in a separate procedure on the damages claimed by the farmer.
For Paul François, "there will be a before and an after this trial. It shows that an ordinary citizen can convict a multinational," he says.
And "it shows that these products are dangerous".
"I hope this will set a precedent for other victims," notes the farmer, adding that the Court "had rejected all Monsanto's claims".
Me François Lafforgue, his lawyer, confirms this.
"Every Monsanto argument has been dismissed one after another by the court."
"This puts a definitive end to this long legal fight and it is an exemplary and extremely motivated decision, with 17 pages of reasons, which is rare," he told AFP.
The rejection of the appeal "opens a breach for the victims of pesticides who may consider initiating liability actions at the origin of their medical problems", underlines Me Lafforgue.
It is a "final and historic judicial victory. That of the clay pot against the iron pot and that of courage," added the NGO Future Generations in a statement.
- neurological disorders -
For its part, Bayer "takes note of the decision of the Court of Cassation".
While expressing in a press release "its compassion for people in proven difficult health situations", the multinational is still convinced that the Lasso "is not at the origin of the diseases alleged by Mr. François".
"The products we market do not present a risk to human health if they are used under the conditions of use defined in the context of their marketing authorization and good agricultural practices", Bayer persists.
Paul François was intoxicated in April 2004. Long hospitalized, he even came close to death and claims to suffer from serious neurological disorders.
His poorly recognized as an occupational disease, he began a legal fight to recognize the group's responsibility for his intoxication, asking for more than one million euros in compensation.
Justice ruled in his favor at first instance in 2012 and then on appeal in 2015. But Monsanto appealed for the first time to cassation and the case was referred to the Lyon Court of Appeal.
In April 2019, the company was again found responsible, this time for marketing "defective products".
Bayer, which has meanwhile bought Monsanto, then lodged a second appeal to the highest court.
Justice considered that the group should have pointed out the specific danger of using the product in the event of work in tanks.
However, it did not comment on the very toxicity of the Lasso.
This herbicide has been banned in France since November 2007. It was banned from Canada in 1985, then in Belgium and the United Kingdom in 1992.
© 2020 AFP