GENOSOURCE, LLC, Plaintiff/Counter-Defendant, v. INGURAN, LLC, d/b/a SEXING TECHNOLOGIES, Defendant/Counter-Plaintiff. INGURAN, LLC, d/b/a SEXING TECHNOLOGIES, Third-Party Plaintiff,, No. 18-CV-113-CJW-KEM, 2019 WL 1210111 (N.D. Iowa Mar. 14, 2019) Dairy Farm and Livestock Genetics Company have separate lawsuits in Texas and Iowa.  Genetics Company sues in Federal Court to block the dual litigation.  The Court finds that the Texas Action and the Iowa Action are parallel proceedings and that the first-filed rule is implicated. The Court also finds that no exceptions to the first-filed rule apply and that the Iowa Action should take priority over the Texas Action. The Court’s February 26, 2019 Order enjoining Inguran, LLC, doing business as Sexing Technologies “from taking any further action in, and from taking any action to prosecute, the action filed in the Southern District of Texas.

 

 

Brown v. United States, No. 18-801L, 2019 WL 1219508 (Fed. Cl. Mar. 15, 2019)On June 6, 2018, Plaintiffs, Allan Brown and Brown Sod Farm, LLC, filed a Complaint seeking compensation for a Fifth Amendment taking, alleging that an auxiliary spillway at the Lake Oologah Dam in Rogers County, Oklahoma, is responsible for erosion of their property. The court found each release of water through the spillway generates a discreet taking claim. Accordingly, Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss is denied.

 

KAREN G. DAVIDS, as Tr. of the Harold D. & Karen G. Davids Revocable Tr., Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Defendant., No. 17-CV-3091-LRR, 2019 WL 1234332, (N.D. Iowa Mar. 18, 2019)

On November 2, 2017, Plaintiff filed a Complaint, seeking judicial review of a final administrative decision denying the applicability of the “minimal effect” exception to wetlands located on farmland owed by Davids. See generally Complaint. On January 12, 2018, the USDA filed an Answer. On April 20, 2018, Davids filed the Plaintiff’s Brief. On May 25, 2018, the USDA filed the Defendant’s Brief (docket no. 27). On June 7, 2018, Davids filed the Reply Brief. On June 8, 2018, 2018, the matter was referred to Judge Mahoney for issuance of a report and recommendation. On October 16, 2018, Judge Mahoney issued the Report and Recommendation, which recommends that the court affirm the USDA’s decision. On October 30, 2018, Davids filed the Objections. On November 6, 2018, the USDA filed a Response to Davids’s Objections. Neither party has requested oral argument and the court finds that oral argument is unnecessary. The matter is fully submitted and ready for decision.  The objection was overruled.

 

Oluf Johnson, et al., Appellants, v. Consumers Coop. Ass’n of Litchfield, Respondent. Additional Party Names: Ctr. for Food Safety, Debra Johnson, Organic Farmers Ass’n, Organic Farmers’ Agency for Relationship Mktg., No. A18-0517, 2019 WL 1233263 (Minn. Ct. App. Mar. 18, 2019)
Appellants and organic farmers Oluf and Debra Johnson filed a civil suit alleging that, because of pesticides that drifted onto their farmland as a result of respondent’s spraying of an adjacent field, the organic certification of a portion of their farmland was suspended and they had to destroy the crops grown there. The district court granted summary judgment for respondent on the claims arising from the loss of appellants’ organic certification. The district court based its ruling on the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v. Paynesville Farmers Union Co-op. Oil Co., which held that organic certification could not be suspended based on pesticide drift because the phrase “applied to” in 7 C.F.R. § 205.202(b) unambiguously refers to the intentional application of prohibited substances by an organic producer. 817 N.W.2d 693, 712 (Minn. 2012). The district court held that therefore, as a matter of law, pesticide drift could not be the proximate cause of the suspension of a field’s organic certification.  We are bound by the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson, and thus we affirm the district court’s dismissal of appellants’ claims relating to the suspension of their field’s organic certification.

 

Meyer Nat. Foods LLC v. Greater Omaha Packing Co., 302 Neb. 509 (2019).  Meyer Natural Foods LLC (Meyer), together with Crum & Forster Specialty Insurance Company, sued Greater Omaha Packing Company, Inc. (GOP), for breach of contract following a purported E. coli “O157:H7” contamination of beef owned by Meyer and processed by GOP. The district court for Douglas County granted summary judgment in favor of GOP.

 

LEGISLATIVE:

H.R. 1783: To provide for increased scrutiny with respect to pesticide residues of glyphosate, and for other purposes. Info HERE

H.R. 1776: To amend the Lacey Act Amendments of 1981 to prohibit importation, exportation, transportation, sale, receipt, acquisition, and purchase in interstate or foreign commerce, or in a manner substantially affecting interstate or foreign commerce, of any live animal of any prohibited wildlife Info HERE

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