800 326 9054The Supreme Court has granted a petition sought by Bayer subsidiary Monsanto to address whether federal pesticide law pre-empts state product liability law.
Specifically, the court said in an order issued Friday that the grant of a writ of certiorari is “limited to the following question: Whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act preempts a label-based failure-to-warn claim where EPA has not required the warning.”
The company has been trying to limit its exposure in thousands of cases brought by plaintiffs who claim exposure to Roundup caused their non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
The Justice Department weighed in on the side of the company last month. The specific case involves John Durnell, a Missouri man who won $1.25 million in a verdict upheld by the Missouri Court of Appeals in April.
That court rejected reasoning from the U.S. 3rdCourt of Appeals in Philadelphia, which found in 2024 that FIFRA pre-empts state liability law. Instead, it followed decisions from the 9th and 11th circuits.
Both Monsanto and Solicitor General D. John Sauer said the split in the circuit courts necessitated review by the high court.
Bayer-Monsanto has spent about $10 billion to settle most of the lawsuits against it, but thousands remain.
The case is expected to draw interest from an array of business, environmental and other groups.
No argument date has been set. In a news release, Bayer said it expects a decision by June 2026.
“The Supreme Court decision to take the case is good news for U.S. farmers, who need regulatory clarity,” Bayer CEO Bill Anderson said. “It’s also an important step in our multi-pronged strategy to significantly contain this litigation. It is time for the U.S. legal system to establish that companies should not be punished under state laws for complying with federal warning label requirements.”
“Every leading regulator worldwide has concluded that glyphosate-based herbicides can be used safely,” the release said.
Lori Ann Burd, environmental health program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement, “It’s a sad day in America when our highest court agrees to consider depriving thousands of Roundup users suffering from cancer of their day in court. Bayer is seeking the court’s intervention because juries armed with compelling scientific studies linking Roundup to cancer have awarded billions to cancer victims. Bayer keeps losing on the facts about its own product so now it’s asking the court to prevent juries from ever again hearing those facts.”
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*Sourced from Agri-Pulse.