In a dramatic legal showdown that underscores the high-stakes war over product liability and federal oversight, Monsanto, a unit of Bayer AG, failed to overturn a $175 million jury verdict awarded to a Pennsylvania man who linked his cancer to the controversial weedkiller Roundup. The Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled Thursday that the jury’s award to Ernest Caranci and his wife was both justifiable and constitutionally sound.
Court Dismisses Monsanto’s Federal Preemption Argument
The verdict strikes a decisive blow against Monsanto’s long-standing legal strategy: arguing that state-level “failure to warn” claims should be preempted by federal law under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).
Monsanto leaned heavily on the Third Circuit’s 2023 ruling in Schaffner v. Monsanto Corp., which found such claims federally preempted. But the Superior Court flatly rejected that interpretation, asserting that Pennsylvania’s laws align with FIFRA—not conflict with it.
“FIFRA requires manufacturers to include label warnings that are ‘adequate to protect health and the environment,’” wrote Judge Alice Beck Dubow. “Pennsylvania law doesn’t impose any stricter requirements—just parallel ones.”
This nuanced legal distinction could have far-reaching consequences, as it offers a judicial green light for other plaintiffs in Pennsylvania—and potentially beyond—to bring similar claims without running afoul of federal regulation.
