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.”
据美国堪萨斯州地方法院法官约翰·朗斯特鲁姆（John Lungstrum）周一认证了至少 440,000 名农民。 堪萨斯城之星。
当先正达开始在美国广泛销售其种子时，中国尚未批准进口玉米。所有在 2013 年秋季或之后销售玉米的玉米生产商（包括作物份额地主）都遭受了损失，根据原告律师的说法。
“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.”
法院尚未为农民决定是否要被排除在班级之外的最后期限。
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.
Lungstrum 法官认证的课程涵盖了每个州的农民。订单副本可在 www.syngentacornlitigation.com 并提供有关认证类别所涵盖的玉米种植者的具体信息。 Agrisure Viptera 和 Duracade 购买者不包括在内。被任命代表班级的律师来自以下律师事务所：Grey Reed & McGraw, PC；格雷，里特和格雷厄姆，PC； Hare Wynn Newell & Newton;和 Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP。