By S. Leitenberger @ Adobe Stock
Bayer AG, the German company that purchased Monsanto, makers of Roundup weed killer, has won a court appeal on its labeling and the dangers the product poses to users in a Philadelphia court. According to Bloomberg’s Jef Feeley and Tim Loh, the case could go to the Supreme Court. They write:
Bayer has set aside as much as $16 billion to resolve more than 100,000 cases over Roundup, which it acquired when it bought Monsanto for $63 billion. The conglomerate now faces a second wave of suits over the weedkiller, many of which include failure-to-warn claims that have been the basis for many of the jury verdicts against the company.
In their decision, the US appeals court cited how federal regulation requires health warnings on pesticide labels to conform to those approved by the Environmental Protection Agency.
The ruling potentially sets up the case for review by the US Supreme Court. In February, another federal appeals court in Atlanta rejected the German company’s argument that federal law preempts, or trumps, state law on what warnings must be posted on pesticides.
The ruling creates a “split among the federal appellate courts and necessitates a review by the US Supreme Court,” a Bayer spokesman said in an email. Bayer insists that Roundup is safe.
Read More: Bayer Weighs ‘Texas Two-Step’ Bankruptcy Filing Over Roundup
The next step could entail a more comprehensive review from the Philadelphia appeals court, which may take months and could push back trials scheduled in Pennsylvania, Holly Froum, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, said in a note. That could reduce Bayer’s ultimate exposure in the overall litigation, potentially keeping settlement costs within the company’s $16 billion outlay, Froum said.
Tom Kline, a Philadelphia lawyer who represented a man who claims Roundup exposure caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the ruling.
In another Roundup case, a client of Kline was awarded more than $2 billion by a Philadelphia jury. In June, however, that verdict was cut by 82% to $400 million.
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