U.S. EPA Supports Bayer’s Appeal of Roundup Cancer Verdict

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is weighing in on Bayer AG ’s side in its appeal of the first, and so far only, federal jury verdict finding the company’s Roundup weed killer causes cancer.

U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in July slashed the March verdict to $25 million from more than $80 million. He refused though to overturn the jury’s finding that Roundup is defective because it’s sold without a cancer warning.

In a filing Friday to a San Francisco-based appeals court, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency argued that the jury’s finding should be overturned.

The EPA said it reviewed and approved the Roundup warning label issued by Monsanto, which Bayer acquired in 2018 for about $63 billion. The agency said lawyers representing Edwin Hardeman, who sued Monsanto, ignored the authority of the federal agency and instead improperly relied on California law to claim the omission resulted in a flawed label.

“That label, once reviewed and approved by EPA, is controlling,” the agency said. “States cannot impose distinct labeling requirements.”

Bayer said earlier this month that it agreed to postpone two pending U.S. trials involving its Roundup weedkiller to allow time for mediation on a possible settlement. The German company has lost three U.S. trials where people claimed that Roundup, its top-selling weedkiller, caused their cancer. Bayer has appealed those verdicts and insists the product is safe. There were 42,700 others suing the company over the product as of October.

Hardeman testified that he used Roundup on his large plot of land in Sonoma County, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of San Francisco. He alleged that his years of exposure caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Hardeman’s lawyer, Aimee Wagstaff, said in an email the EPA’s filing mirrors the “Hail Mary” argument Bayer has made all along, which has been repeatedly rejected by numerous state and federal judges. “The EPA’s brief doesn’t change the law,” she said.

Bayer said in an emailed statement that it’s pleased the EPA “expressed its views in this appeal, which are consistent with the preemption arguments we have made throughout this case.”

The appeals court case is Hardeman v. Monsanto, 19-16636, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit (San Francisco). The district court case is In re: Roundup Products Liability Litigation, MDL 2741, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco).

To contact the reporter on this story: Joel Rosenblatt in San Francisco at jrosenblatt@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Glovin at dglovin@bloomberg.net, Joe Schneider

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