SCOTUS: Federal law preempts state failure-to-warn claims
SCOTUS: Federal law preempts state failure-to-warn claims
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that federal law preempts state law when it comes to warnings on pesticide labels may reverberate through previous court decisions involving million-dollar civil awards.
By Mary Hightower
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
SCOTUS: Federal law preempts state failure-to-warn claims
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that federal law preempts state law when it comes to warnings on pesticide labels may reverberate through previous court decisions involving million-dollar civil awards.
By Mary Hightower
University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that federal law preempts state law when it comes to warnings on pesticide labels may reverberate through previous court decisions involving million-dollar civil awards.
Last week, the high court issued a ruling in Monsanto Company v. John L. Durnell. In 2019, John Durnell of St. Louis sued Monsanto claiming that two decades of glyphosate use caused him cancer. In 2023, a jury found Monsanto liable for failure to warn of potential cancer risks and awarded Durnell $1.25 million.
“Failure to warn” is about what entity decides whether a cancer warning is needed on a label. Acting under FIFRA, the Environmental Protection Agency approves pesticide labels through a process that includes scientific review and public comment. States may regulate sales and use of pesticides but may not alter labels.
The difference between state and federal authority over labels determines which law applies — state or federal — rather than which court gets to hear the case.
In its ruling, SCOTUS said that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act or FIFRA expressly pre-empts a state-law failure-to-warn claim against Monsanto, because such a claim would require the company to add a cancer warning to Roundup’s label that is not part of the EPA-approved label.
“Going forward, failure to warn claims in pesticide liability lawsuits will be considered preempted by FIFRA, which means it will be virtually impossible for plaintiffs to argue those claims in court,” said Brigit Rollins, staff attorney for the National Agricultural Law Center.”
The ruling “is likely going to be a major blow to plaintiffs in Roundup cases and any other pesticide liability case because failure to warn claims have become standard for those cases and have thus far been a pretty successful argument for plaintiffs’ attorneys,” Rollins said.
As a result of the SCOTUS ruling, the Durnell case was sent back to the lower courts.
“I think it is very likely that the jury verdict will be overturned because it was based on Durnell’s claim of failure to warn,” Rollins said.
“As far as other Roundup liability cases go, I think that there are a few things we could see: Failure to warn is a central claim in these cases, but not the only claim,” she said.
“It is possible that we could see some plaintiffs drop their failure to warn claims but continue to litigate other claims to see how successful those may be,” Rollins said. “However, because failure to warn was considered the strongest claim that Roundup liability plaintiffs raised, I think that without that claim as an option, we are likely to see many plaintiffs look to settle their lawsuits.”
For more information about the NALC, visit NationalAgLawCenter.org
About the National Agricultural Law Center
Created by Congress in 1987, the National Agricultural Law Center serves as the nation’s leading source of agricultural and food law research and information. The NALC works with producers, agribusinesses, state and federal policymakers, lenders, Congressional staffers, attorneys, land grant universities, students, and many others to provide objective, nonpartisan agricultural and food law research and information to the nation’s agricultural community.
The NALC is a unit of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and works in close partnership with the National Agricultural Library, a subsidiary of the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service. For information about the NALC, visit nationalaglawcenter.org. The NALC is also on X, Facebook and LinkedIn as @nataglaw. Subscribe online to receive NALC Communications, including webinar announcements, the NALC’s Quarterly Newsletter, and The Feed.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. To learn more about ag and food research in Arkansas, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station at aaes.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land-grant education system.
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