4DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2025/11/06 - Nov 06, 2025

argument

4DCA Division 1 Oral Argument - 2025/11/06

California Fourth District Court of Appeal, Division One 3h 20m 1 speaker 8 chapters transcribed 8 days ago official recording ↗

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

How are remote participants checked in and set up for the oral argument?

Unknown 13:15

one should we set up at the council table

Martha 13:17

or?

13:53

I have armed troops and masks. I have a lot of federal thugs patrolling my neighborhood.

Unknown 15:57

You're...

Martha 16:33

Good morning. This is Martha from the clerk's office. I will be doing a quick check-in for those appearing remotely. If I can please have you unmute yourselves and turn on your video.

Martha 16:51

Ms. Duarte, can you hear me? OK. Yes. Thank you. Please state your presence when I call your name. So Ms. Duarte, because you're the only one. Here. OK. I can hear you clearly. So I'm going to ask you that you please keep your microphone and video off until your case is called. If you experience any technical difficulties during the oral argument session, immediately exit the video conference and use the phone number and the access code that we emailed you this morning. Okay? Okay. All right. So if you can please unmute yourself and turn your video off. Thank you. Thank you.

Unknown 17:52

I really thought the remote. I liked that I could put my notes on the screen with the teleprompter.

18:02

That was great. And I liked that.

18:30

Yeah.

Unknown 19:13

to appeal just a few things before we get started this morning. The appellate table is here to my right. When you come up to argue, please make sure you adjust the podium using the switch here on the right-hand side so the microphone is pointing at your chin. If you don't do that, the justices will not be able to hear you on the bench and will stop you mid-argument to have you properly adjust the podium. If you have to use the restroom, you have to come back through screening to get back inside the courtroom. As I mentioned before, water is available on the council tables, and if you could please keep talking while he's down to a minimum, I'd appreciate it. Any questions for me this morning? Thank you, appreciate it.

Unknown 26:58

Good morning. Welcome to the Court of Appeal. With me on this first panel are Justice Kelady to my right, Justice Rubin to my left. Looks like we have a panel change, but on all of the cases, keep in mind we're very familiar with your briefs, so just highlight those issues that are most important to you. I'm going to ask the clerk to go back in the room and turn the volume off on the TV monitor. Would you do that for me, please? I should have done that before we came out. Thank you. Otherwise, we can hear it. All right. We're going to start this morning with Dennis versus Monsanto. And for appellant, please state your appearance and let us know if you wish to reserve time to respond.

Andrew Tauber 27:45

Yes. Good morning, Your Honor. Andrew Tauber on behalf of Monsanto. And I would like to reserve five minutes for a rebuttal. All right. Thank

Unknown 27:52

you. You may proceed.

Andrew Tauber 27:53

Thank you, Your Honor. I intend to address preemption first and then turn to punitive damages.

Unknown 27:58

Well, most of your brief was all about preemption.

Andrew Tauber 28:01

Yes, ma'am. FIFRA imposes two dispositive labeling requirements on pesticide manufacturers. FIFRA requires the manufacturer use the label that EPA approved through the registration process. Here, Roundup's EPA approved label, the label that federal law requires Monsanto to use, does not include a cancer warning. Thus, any state law requirement to include a cancer warning on the Roundup label is in addition to and different from FIFRA's labeling requirements and therefore expressly preempted under 7 U.S.C. 136 V.B. Second, FIFRA requires that a manufacturer obtain EPA approval before changing the currently approved label.

Unknown 29:01

Much of what you're saying is included in your brief.

Andrew Tauber 29:05

Much

Unknown 29:06

of what you're saying is included

Andrew Tauber 29:08

in your

Unknown 29:08

brief. We've read the

Andrew Tauber 29:10

brief. Okay, Your Honor. I was just setting the stage.

Unknown 29:12

So I think the problem that you're dealing with, frankly, is the significant cases that disagree with your position. And maybe you should spend a little bit more time

Andrew Tauber 29:21

on that. Well, certainly, Your Honor. I mean, we recognize that more cases have come out against us than have come out in favor of our position on this issue. But We respectfully submit that those cases are wrongly decided and that the Third Circuit's decision, Schaffner, is the correct and better analysis. Now, sorry, the commonality among all the cases that have