Feds Back Bayer’s Bid To Undo $25M Monsanto Verdict
Law360 | Mike LaSusa
The U.S. federal government filed an amicus brief Friday at the Ninth Circuit backing arguments made by Bayer AG, which is seeking to overturn a $25 million verdict in favor of a man who claims the weedkiller Roundup caused his cancer.
The government’s 33-page filing supported Bayer’s contention that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act preempts Ed Hardeman’s claims that Monsanto, which merged last year with Bayer, failed to warn of the cancer risk of Roundup.
States like California, whose laws Hardeman had cited in his lawsuit, can’t impose “any requirements” for pesticide labeling “in addition to or different from” those required by the federal law, attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said.