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.