By Diana Novak Jones
April 26 (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday to limit thousands of Bayer lawsuits alleging the German company’s Roundup weedkiller causes cancer, part of years-long litigation over the product.
Here’s a look at how the court’s decision, which is expected at the end of June, could affect Bayer’s overall liability.
The justices are hearing Bayer’s appeal of a lower court decision in a case brought by a man who said he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, years after being exposed to Roundup. The Missouri Court of Appeals upheld a St. Louis jury’s $1.25 million verdict against the plaintiff, John Durnell, for his cancer diagnosis.
The company faces thousands of similar lawsuits in Roundup in federal and state courts across the country.
At issue before the Supreme Court is whether a federal law requiring warning labels on pesticides preempts similar state laws. Bayer argues that the plaintiffs cannot claim violation of state law by failing to warn of any cancer risk posed by Roundup because the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found no such risk and does not require such a warning on the product’s label. President Donald Trump’s administration has sided with Bayer in the case.
The Supreme Court is expected to rule by the end of June.
A ruling in favor of Bayer would be a major blow to a host of other lawsuits because the plaintiffs would no longer be able to claim that the company failed to comply with state laws when it did not include a warning about the cancer risk on its labels.
Bayer is facing claims over Roundup from about 65,000 plaintiffs in U.S. state and federal courts. In the lawsuits, which began in 2015, plaintiffs say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other forms of cancer after using the weed killer at home or at work. Roundup is one of the most widely used weed killers in the United States. Bayer says decades of studies have shown that Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate, are safe for human use.
In February, Bayer announced that it had reached a $7.25 billion settlement with lawyers seeking to represent a nationwide class alleging that Roundup exposure caused their cancer. The agreement aims to resolve most of the remaining lawsuits and potential future lawsuits from people who were exposed to Roundup and developed cancer in the future. A Missouri state court judge gave a preliminary green light to the proposed settlement in March. Final approval has not yet been given, with a hearing scheduled for July.
