OAKLAND, May 13 (WNM staff) - In a verdict, most likely to be appealed, a jury in state court in Oakland, California, issued its verdict Monday, awarding a total of more than $2 billion in punitive damages to a husband and wife over there cancer claims.

As Bloomberg reports, the jurors agreed that Alva and Alberta Pilliod's use of Roundup over about 30 years for residential landscaping was a “substantial factor” in causing them to develop non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

In another case, Bayer said on Monday its Monsanto unit, which is being investigated by French prosecutors for compiling files of influential people such as journalists in France, likely did the same across Europe, suggesting a potentially wider problem, Reuters reports.

French prosecutors said on Friday they had opened an inquiry after newspaper Le Monde filed a complaint alleging that Monsanto - acquired by Bayer for $63 billion last year - had kept a file of 200 names, including journalists and lawmakers in hopes of influencing positions on pesticides.