CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MAY 14: Roundup weed killing products are offered for sale at a home improvement store on May 14, 2019 in Chicago, Illinois. A jury yesterday ordered Monsanto, the maker of Roundup, to pay a California couple more than $2 billion in damages after finding that the weed killer had caused their cancer. This is the third jury to find Roundup had caused cancer since Bayer purchased Monsanto about a year ago. Bayer’s stock price has fallen more than 40 percent since the takeover. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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Bayer shares jumped in morning trade as the German life sciences company said it scored a legal victory in its suit over claims that exposure to its popular Roundup weed killer led to cancer.
The stock was up 11% at 3 p.m. London time.
The company on Thursday announced that the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia found in its favor against plaintiff David Schaffner’s claim alleging that Monsanto — which Bayer acquired in 2018 — violated state law by failing to add a cancer warning to the Roundup label.
Schaffner was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma — a type of cancer affecting the lymph system — in 2006. He and his wife, Theresa Sue, sued Monsanto in May 2019, partly citing a loss of consortium, which refers to the impact of his illness on their relationship.
Schaffner, a landscaper, claimed he was exposed to Roundup both professionally and as a private property owner.
Writing for a three-judge panel, Chief Judge Michael Chagares said that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act demands uniformity of state law labeling requirements, preventing the obligation to add a cancer warning to Roundup in Pennsylvania in this case.
Chip Becker, a lawyer for the Schaffners, expressed disappointment in the court decision and said that federal law should not preempt the failure-to-warn claim of his clients, who will review their legal options, according to Reuters.
Bayer has been mired in legal conflict over Roundup, with Reuters estimating that 165,000 charges were brought against the product in the U.S., of which roughly 54,000 reportedly remain as of August, following a $10.9 billion settlement in 2020.
On Thursday, Bayer noted that the Philadelphia ruling conflicts with decisions made by other federal appeal courts and called upon the U.S. Supreme Court to preside.
“This decision on federal preemption, a cross-cutting issue in this litigation, creates a circuit split among the federal appellate courts and necessitates a review by the U.S. Supreme Court to settle this important issue of law,” Bayer said, adding it is “considering the impact of this ruling on other pending litigation and looks forward to presenting its arguments, as fully embraced by the Third Circuit, to the U.S. Supreme Court.”