WILMINGTON, Del. (Legal Newsline) – Monsanto is again asking a Delaware judge to toss a lawsuit that demands a cancer warning label on its weedkiller Roundup, despite both the federal government and state of California determining that wouldn’t be appropriate.
The company on Jan. 26 filed its second motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought by Scott Gilmore in Delaware federal court, with this most recent one targeting Gilmore’s amended complaint.
Gilmore’s case claims a warning label was required even though a California judge has ruled it was wrong to place on of the state’s infamous Prop 65 warnings on it and the federal Environmental Protection Agency has determined the product doesn’t cause cancer.
Gilmore doesn’t allege he has contracted non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, the disease with an alleged link to active ingredient glyphosate that is the subject of thousands of lawsuits.
Nearly every regulatory body in the world says glyphosate does not cause cancer, with the exception of the International Agency for Research on Cancer.
Its former non-voting chairman, Chris Portier, signed on as a paid plaintiff expert shortly after IARC reached its conclusion.
“Plaintiff’s claim is expressly preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (‘FIFRA’), which bars any state-law ‘requirements for labeling or packaging in addition to or different from’ its (federal) requirements,” the motion says.
“FIFRA requires that pesticides be sold without deviation from the EPA-approved label and requires that pesticides not be misbranded by including false or misleading statements. EPA has repeatedly determined that no cancer warning is warranted for Roundup products and, in fact, has concluded that such a warning would be false and constitute illegal ‘misbranding.’”
Monsanto’s parent company Bayer is trying to finalize a mass settlement of personal injury lawsuits but has also been forced into court by secondary litigation like Gilmore’s case and another brought by a shareholder.
Gilmore is represented by lawyers at Rhodunda Williams & Kondraschow and Milstein Jackson. Monsanto is represented by John Rosenthal and Jeff Wilkerson of Winston & Strawn and Kelly Farnan of Richards, Layton & Finger.