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Sleath v. West Mont Home Health Services12/28/2000
eed, Congress amended FIFRA in 1972 out of increasing concern for the human health and the environmental effects of pesticides such as DDT. Given that FIFRA establishes no private damages remedy for those injured by pesticides, it would be astonishing that, without any discussion, Congress could have intended to deprive injured persons of all means of relief.
49 FIFRA's text demonstrates that Congress had no intent to extinguish damages remedies under state common law. For example, in § 136v, Congress used the term "requirements" to mean "regulation," a term connoting positive commands of law, not court orders to pay damages for the harms caused by pesticides. Section 136v(a) provides that " State may regulate" the sales or use of pesticides as long as the state "regulation" does not permit a sale or use prohibited by FIFRA. Section 136v(b) forbids " uch state" from regulating labeling by imposing labeling "requirements" in addition to or different from those required under FIFRA. The plainest reading of the two subsections is that a state may "regulate" pesticide sales or use, but in doing so may not impose labeling "requirements." In other words, § 136v(b)'s prohibition on state labeling "requirements" represents an exception to § 136v(a)'s general grant of state authority to "regulate" pesticide sales and use.
50 The Medtronic plurality interpreted the term "requirements" in the MDA's preemption provision by examining its usages throughout the MDA. In doing so, the plurality adhered to "the normal rule of statutory construction that identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning." Sullivan v. Stroop (1990), 496 U.S. 478, 484, 110 S.Ct. 2499, 2504, 110 L.Ed.2d 438 (internal quotations and citations omitted).
51 The term "requirements" appears in FIFRA 75 times. No court considering preemption under FIFRA ever addressed the meaning of "requirements" in the entire context of FIFRA; courts only looked at it in terms of § 136v(b). However, in each instance other than § 136v(b), Congress intended the term "requirements" to mean enactments of positive law by legislative or administrative bodies. It is inconceivable that Congress intended that § 136v(b) would be the only section of FIFRA in which the term "requirements" includes the application of general rules of common law by judges and juries.
52 Throughout FIFRA, the term "requirements" refers exclusively to positive enactments of statutory and regulatory law. Accordingly, the term "requirements" should be given the same reading in § 136v(b). Simply because the term "requirement" was found in Cipollone to encompass common law actions for damage, does not preclude this Court from reaching a contrary result in this case. "Only mischief can result if [the same words appearing in different statutes] are given one meaning regardless of the statutory context." Lee v. Madigan (1959), 358 U.S. 228, 231, 79 S.Ct. 276, 278, 3 L.Ed.2d 260.
53 Moreover, subsections (a) and (c) of § 136v demonstrate that Congress intended to authorize states to take actions that may indirectly prompt pesticide manufacturers to change their labels. Indirect pressure on pesticide manufacturers to change their labels, which may result from liability in damage actions, cannot be characterized as labeling "requirements." A state court award of damages for failure to warn does not mandate any change in labeling. Rather, it merely requires that a pesticide manufacturer pay money to an injured person. While a damage award may prompt a pesticide manufacturer to seek the EPA's approval for a change in labeling, it does not directly command such a change. As the EPA points out, such indirect pre
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