Bayer Wins Appeal in Roundup Lawsuit

USAgNet - 08/19/2024

Reuters news service reports that Bayer has won a legal victory in its fight to limit liability from claims that its Roundup weed killer causes cancer, as a U.S. appeals court on Thursday said federal law shields the German company from a lawsuit by a Pennsylvania landscaper.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia rejected plaintiff David Schaffner's claim that Bayer's Monsanto unit violated state law by failing to put a cancer warning on the label for Roundup.

Schaffner was diagnosed in 2006 with a kind of cancer called non-Hodgkins lymphoma, a common claim for Roundup plaintiffs. He and his wife Theresa sued Bayer in 2019, in part over how his illness affected 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 labels, and prevented Pennsylvania from adding a cancer warning, Reuters reported.

Bayer said the decision conflicts with rulings from federal appeals courts in San Francisco and Atlanta in similar cases. That may increase the prospect that the U.S. Supreme Court could step in to resolve the split, and potentially reduce Bayer's liabilities.

« Return to Home Page