Dynamic Accident Lawyers: Syngenta Plans Appeal Over “Novel” Questions Ruling in Viptera MDL

Syngenta is seeking to appeal a recent federal ruling allowing corn industry farmers and stakeholders to proceed with multidistrict litigation claiming the Swiss agribusiness company tainted the U.S. corn supply with genetically modified seed, causing China to block imports.

Thousands of farmers and corn industry companies have accused Syngenta of misleading American farmers when they released Viptera corn into the market before finalizing China Viptera approval, which subsequently caused corn market stakeholders to lose billions of dollars.

Syngenta’s appeal stems from sections of a recent decision U.S. District Court Judge John W. Lungstrum made, ruling that Syngenta address “novel” questions of law.

According to Syngenta, “The ruling on duty is the first of its kind in this country addressing alleged duties in tort for manufacturers of GM seeds to restrict the introduction of U.S.-approved traits in the U.S. simply because the traits have not been approved in a foreign market like China.

Under that duty, a company may be required to delay introducing innovative products, or to alter the way it introduces innovative products, solely because the innovation might undermine the economic interests of other businesses.”

Earlier last month, Judge Lungstrum dismissed some plaintiffs’ claims of trespass that were based solely on a theory of how Syngenta’s conduct affected the corn market more generally.

Overview of Syngenta Litigation

Syngenta has been under a pile of lawsuits filed in federal and state courts across the country for losses allegedly caused by the release of Agrisure Viptera trait (otherwise known as MIR162) prior to China’s approval of the trait in imported grain. The federal lawsuits have been combined and moved to a multidistrict (MDL) in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas.

Syngenta AG is a Swiss-based agribusiness company that owns several American companies, including Syngenta Seeds, Inc. Syngenta litigation involves GMO corn Syngenta developed with the MIR162 insecticidal trait. Syngenta developed the seed to control corn pests. After U.S. regulators approved Viptera in 2010, Syngenta began marketing it for the 2011 crop year.

While most U.S. trading partners promptly approved the GMO corn trait, China, however, did not grant import approval for many months. China was the third largest purchaser of exported U.S. corn, accounting for approximately 13 percent of the U.S. export market, which comprises 20 percent of U.S. corn.

Although China publicized a zero-tolerance policy for unapproved GM corn, it was not until November 2013, that China began rejecting U.S. corn shipments containing traces of Viptera. Although China finally approved Viptera for import in December of 2014, U.S. corn sales to China have barely budged since that time. Key to the Syngenta litigation, the average price of corn per bushel dropped by more than half between the summer of 2012 and the fall of 2014.

Plaintiffs, including corn industry companies Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland Co., began filing Viptera lawsuits against Syngenta in September of 2014, alleging that China’s rejection of U.S. corn caused economic harm ranging from $ 1 billion to $2 billion and that Syngenta is directly responsible for this harm. Specifically, they allege that Syngenta misled industry constituents and negligently contaminated the U.S. corn supply with Viptera, thus causing the rejection of nearly all U.S. corn by China.

The Syngenta litigation now consists of hundreds of separate lawsuits filed in state and federal courts across the country. In December 2014, most of the Syngenta lawsuits were consolidated into multidistrict litigation in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas. This procedure allows a single court to hear and decide pretrial legal matters in similar complex lawsuits together. It also streamlines the discovery process.

The Syngenta MDL is In Re Syngenta AG MIR 162 Corn Litigation, Case No. 2:14-md-02591, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas.

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