PARIS (Reuters) – A French court has ordered Germany’s Bayer to pay a compensation of some 11,000 euros ($11,564.30) to a crop farmer for the accidental inhalation of a weedkiller, ending a 15-year long legal battle, French media reported on Thursday.
“11,000 euros for so much sacrifice,” the farmer, Paul Francois, who had asked for compensation of more than 1 million euros according to the reports, told franceinfo.
Bayer France did not immediately reply to a Reuters request for comment.
According to franceinfo and Le Monde the exact amount of the damages was 11,135 euros.
The farmer had argued that the fumes he inhaled from the weedkiller Lasso, a product that was subsequently withdrawn from the French market, caused neurological problems, including memory loss, fainting and headaches.
The incident took place in 2004.
France’s highest court in 2020 rejected an appeal by Lasso maker Monsanto, which had meanwhile become a subsidiary of Bayer, opening the way for the court in Lyon to decide on what damages should be awarded to the farmer.
($1 = 0.9512 euros)
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; editing by Silvia Aloisi and Jason Neely)
