US court dismisses appeal over objections to Roundup deal

The 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals has dismissed a challenge by a group of plaintiffs who opposed Bayer's effort to resolve tens of thousands of Roundup lawsuits through a $7.25 billion state court class action settlement. The objecting plaintiffs had argued that a state court had no power to fast-track a nationwide resolution of those lawsuits, and that the case should be heard by a federal judge already overseeing consolidated federal lawsuits alleging that Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. However, a different federal judge ruled in June that the case should stay in Missouri state court, and the 8th Circuit agreed.

Ashley Keller, the lawyer for the objecting plaintiffs, said he would fight the company's settlement proposal in state court, which has scheduled a September 14 hearing to consider approving the deal. "We still oppose the deal," Keller said. "We will argue our objections in state court next month and leave all options open for appeals of adverse rulings, if any." The 8th Circuit's dismissal puts the case firmly back in front of the state court judge who granted preliminary approval to the settlement.

Bayer is facing about 65,000 claims in US state and federal courts from plaintiffs who say they developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma and other forms of cancer after using Roundup at home or on the job. The company, which acquired Roundup when it purchased Monsanto in 2018, has said that decades of studies show Roundup's key ingredient, glyphosate, is safe and does not cause cancer. The class action settlement, announced in February, aims to resolve most current and future Roundup claims in the US. While the settlement was pending, Bayer won a Supreme Court appeal over the adequacy of Roundup's warning label, undercutting one of the central legal claims in the Roundup cases.

(Source：RTE.ie)