U.S. District Judge Certifies Syngenta Corn Case as Class Action
29 September 2016 A Kansas federal judge has ruled that hundreds of thousands of corn farmers’ claims against Syngenta may proceed as a class action.
Plaintiffs allege that Syngenta “prematurely and irresponsibly sold Agrisure Viptera and Duracade, causing significant losses to corn farmers across the country. It is estimated by the plaintiffs that U.S. corn producers lost between $5 to $7 billion in current and future revenue because China stopped importing U.S. corn when Syngenta’s new genetically modified trait contaminated export shipments from the United States.”
U.S. District Court of Kansas Judge John Lungstrum certified a class of at least 440,000 farmers on Monday, according to the Kansas City Star.
China had not yet approved that corn for import when Syngenta started selling its seed on a wide-spread basis across the U.S. Those losses were suffered by all corn producers (including crop-share landlords) who marketed corn in the fall of 2013 or later, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs.
“The Court’s ruling will make it easier and less expensive for farmers to pursue their claims against Syngenta,” said Scott Powell who, along with Don Downing, William Chaney and Patrick Stueve, was appointed by the Court as attorneys to represent the class. “Instead of having to retain and pay individual counsel, file their own lawsuit, produce voluminous farm records, sit for a deposition and appear at trial, the Court found that all class members may attempt to prove their claims through a limited number of class representatives. If those class representatives win, all class members win. No individual farmer has to file a lawsuit to seek a recovery.”
The Court has not yet set a deadline for farmers to decide whether they want to be excluded from the class.
Downing, Stueve, Powell and Chaney have been working virtually full time on the case since they were appointed as co-lead counsel for the federal multi-district litigation (MDL) by Judge Lungstrum in January 2015. There are lawsuits pending in Kansas, Minnesota and Illinois. As Patrick Stueve explained, “Our group has taken the lead in getting discovery from Syngenta and in developing the expert witnesses that will be needed to prove both liability and damages.” In appointing them to represent the class, the Court found that that the “history of this litigation has demonstrated that [these lawyers] will diligently and ably prosecute the class claims.” It is anticipated that Judge Lungstrum will try the first MDL case against Syngenta in June 2017.
The class certified by Judge Lungstrum covers farmers in every state. A copy of the order is available at www.syngentacornlitigation.com and provides specific information about the corn farmers covered by the certified classes. Agrisure Viptera and Duracade purchasers are excluded. The attorneys appointed to represent the class are with the law firms of: Gray Reed & McGraw, P.C.; Gray, Ritter & Graham, P.C.; Hare Wynn Newell & Newton; and Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP.
Get The Newsletter Today!
