Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Bayer CropScience being hit by huge lawsuit awards


Bayer CropScience has lost another lawsuit related to contamination of commercial rice harvests with its genetically-modified rice

This time it’s a jury award of almost $48 million for 12 farmers in Arkansas.

The farmers were awarded $42 million to compensate for their losses and $5.9 million in punitive damages.
Bayer’s lawyer said the company will appeal.

The farmers were represented by attorney Scott Powell of Birmingham, Ala., who said he was not surprised by the verdict “given the overwhelming evidence of Bayer’s recklessness ... and the damage done to the farmers. The farmers were just devastated by this and continue to be hurt by it.”

The farmers will each get between less than $33,000 to $1.4 million, Powell said.

The award for punitive damages was applied because the jury decided that Bayer knew, or ought to have known, its conduct would cause damage, and continued recklessly.

Bayer’s general counsel said the amount awarded is “unreasonably excessive by any standard.”

This was the fourth lawsuit since the United States Department of Agriculture announced in August, 2006, that it had found Bayer’s GMO rice in commercial channels.

Bayer lost three previous cases and was ordered to pay about $4.5 million to farmers Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi.

Bayer still faces about 7,000 plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation in federal court in St. Louis, said Scott Poynter, a Little Rock attorney and co-chairman of the plaintiffs’ executive committee, which was appointed by Judge Catherine Perry of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri to lead the plaintiffs’ legal efforts. 

Confidential mediation discussions for the multidistrict litigation will begin in St. Louis next week.

The next trial against Bayer in Arkansas is to begin in July in Desha County.

The third in a series of five federal bellwether cases against Bayer, this one brought by Houston-based Riviana Foods Inc. and affiliated companies, was settled last week.

Riviana received $5.8 million, or about 72.5 percent of its total claim, according to plaintiffs’ attorney Charles Schlumberger of Little Rock.

Claims against Producers Rice Mill and Riceland Foods have not been resolved, and no court date is scheduled.