Overview
(August 23, 2024) The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently issued its decision in Schaffner v. Monsanto Corp. (No. 22-3075), holding that the Pennsylvania state-law claims alleging that Monsanto failed to warn a consumer of the alleged cancer-risks of glyphosate-based products were expressly preempted by the Federal Insecticide Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). The Third Circuit’s decision disagrees with earlier decisions of the Ninth Circuit (Hardeman v. Monsanto) and Eleventh Circuit (Carson v. Monsanto), which have held that FIFRA does not preempt state failure-to-warn claims relating to the EPA’s registration and approval of a label for glyphosate. The Third Circuit rejected the plaintiff’s argument that the Pennsylvania law requirements do nothing more than mirror federal labeling requirements. Instead, the court examined the EPA’s FIFRA regulations—especially the FIFRA regulation’s requirement that a registrant can only amend a label with the approval of the EPA— and concluded that the plaintiff’s state-law failure-to-warn claim, which would require a registrant to provide a cancer warning not included on the EPA-approved label, sought to impose requirements that were different from federal regulatory requirements and thus were preempted under FIFRA.
Monsanto and other manufacturers of glyphosate-based products have faced many costly lawsuits alleging failure-to-warn and similar claims. The industry has defeated many of these suits at trial, but a small number have resulted in large jury verdicts. The Third Circuit’s decision now creates a clear split between the Third Circuit and the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits on FIFRA preemption for glyphosate product labeling—which the EPA has concluded, after extensive study, should not contain a cancer warning. The Schaffner ruling greatly improves the odds that the Supreme Court will review this issue.
Steptoe LLP represented CropLife America, the leading industry trade association for pesticide manufacturers, as amicus curiae in support of Monsanto in the Third Circuit, as well as in the Hardeman and Carson litigation in the Ninth and Eleventh Circuits. CropLife America’s amicus briefs were authored by Shannen W. Coffin and Mark C. Savignac, both lawyers in Steptoe’s Washington, DC appellate practice.
About Steptoe
In more than 110 years of practice, Steptoe has earned an international reputation for vigorous representation of clients before governmental agencies, successful advocacy in litigation and arbitration, and creative and practical advice in structuring business transactions. Steptoe has more than 500 lawyers and other professional staff across offices in Beijing, Brussels, Chicago, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, and Washington. For more information, visit www.steptoe.com.
