By Jonathan Stempel
(Reuters) – Bayer has won a legal victory in its fight to limit liability for claims that its Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, a U.S. appeals court said on Thursday that federal law shields the German company from a lawsuit by a Pennsylvania landscaper.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia has dismissed plaintiff David Schaffner’s claim that Bayer’s Monsanto division violated state law by failing to include a cancer warning on the label of Roundup.
Schaffner was diagnosed with a form of cancer in 2006, non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This is a common claim made by Roundup plaintiffs.
He and his wife Theresa sued Bayer in 2019, partly because of the impact of his illness on their relationship.
Chief Judge Michael Chagares wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act requires nationwide uniformity in pesticide labeling and prevented Pennsylvania from adding a cancer warning.
Bayer said the decision conflicts with rulings by federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Atlanta in similar cases.
That increases the likelihood that the U.S. Supreme Court will step in to resolve the split and potentially reduce Bayer’s liabilities.
Chip Becker, an attorney for the Schaffners, said he was disappointed with the decision and that federal law should not undermine his clients’ failure to warn claim. He said the Schaffners are reviewing their legal options.
Bayer said it was pleased with the decision and said the Supreme Court “must resolve this important legal question.”
The company has maintained that Roundup and its active ingredient glyphosate are safe and said it “stands behind” the brand “fully.”
Bayer is embroiled in a sprawling lawsuit over Roundup and has seen its stock price fall more than 73% since the company bought Monsanto for $63 billion in June 2018.
The company settled a large portion of the Roundup lawsuit for $10.9 billion in 2020, but still faces about 58,000 claims. Another 114,000 claims have been settled or deemed ineligible.
Although Bayer won 14 of the 23 Roundup lawsuits through July 23, one victory was overturned on appeal. The losses resulted in Bayer being awarded billions of dollars in damages.
The Schaffners settled with Bayer in September 2022, on the condition that Bayer fail to convince the court that federal law prevents the state of Pennsylvania from requiring a cancer warning.
Chagares said this was the case and that this approach “best meets Congress’ stated goal of uniformity in pesticide labeling.”
Roundup is one of the most widely used weed killers in the United States. Bayer stopped selling it for home use last year.
The case is Schaffner et al v Monsanto Corp, 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 22-3075.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; additional reporting by Brendan Pierson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
