A U.S. appeals court ruled that Monsanto-owner Bayer can be shielded from a lawsuit by a Pennsylvania man in the company’s bid to limit liability from claims that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer.
They said that not including that warning caused David Schaffner, a professional landscaper and homeowner, to develop cancer known as non-Hodgkin lymphoma after exposure to the weed killer.
Writing for the court, Chief Judge Michael A. Chagares said, “We conclude that the alleged state-law duty to include the Cancer Warning on Roundup’s label imposes requirements that are different from those imposed under FIFRA, and that it is therefore preempted by FIFRA.”
FIFRA is the abbreviation for a federal law called the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.
“Regulations promulgated to implement FIFRA require the health warnings on a pesticide’s label to conform to the proposed label approved by the EPA during the registration process,” he wrote, adding that “during Roundup’s registration process the [Environmental Protection Agency] approved proposed labels omitting a cancer warning following an extensive review of scientific evidence concerning Roundup’s possible carcinogenicity.”
FIFRA, the judge wrote, requires nationwide uniformity in pesticide labels, and that prevented Pennsylvania from adding a cancer warning.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says there is “no evidence that glyphosate causes cancer in humans” and that “glyphosate is not likely to be carcinogenic to humans.”
The decision conflicts with rulings from federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Atlanta in similar cases. That raises the prospect that the U.S. Supreme Court could resolve the split if the Schaffners appeal, perhaps as soon as next year.
The Supreme Court declined to hear Bayer’s appeal from the San Francisco decision. Bayer has until Sept. 5 to appeal the Atlanta decision.
“This decision on federal preemption, a cross-cutting issue in this litigation, creates a circuit split among the federal appellate courts and necessitates a review by the U.S. Supreme Court to settle this important issue of law,” the statement said.
“The Company is considering the impact of this ruling on other pending litigation and looks forward to presenting its arguments, as fully embraced by the Third Circuit, to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Chip Becker, a lawyer for the Schaffners, said his clients were disappointed with the decision, that they were reviewing their legal options, and that federal law should not preempt their failure-to-warn claim.
Schaffner was diagnosed in 2006 with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a common claim for Roundup plaintiffs. He and his wife sued Bayer in 2019, partly over how his illness affected their relationship.
After the Aug. 15 ruling, shares of Bayer increased by about 13 percent. By mid-day trading on Aug. 19, shares of the German pharmaceutical giant that manufactures a popular brand of aspirin stood at about $8.
Over the years, both Bayer and Monsanto have faced significant litigation over Roundup, which was among the most popular weed killers used in the United States for decades. The firm phased out sales of the product, which contains glyphosate, after an announcement in 2023.
In January 2024, in a separate case, a Pennsylvania man was awarded more than $2 billion by a jury in Philadelphia after he claimed in a lawsuit that Roundup caused his cancer.
