Santa Clara, CA: Monsanto Company is facing a potential consumer fraud class action filed by farmers in ten states alleging illegal dicamba spraying to protect the chemical giant’s Xtend cotton and soybean seeds. The suit was filed on behalf of Steven and Deloris “Dee” Landers and similarly harmed farmers in ten states. The Landers operate their family owned farms in New Madrid County, Missouri, and have been in business since 1976.
According to the suit, Monsanto Company knowingly marketed its Xtend cotton and soybean seeds to farmers without any safe herbicide. The suit claims Monsanto knew the only option purchasers would have to protect crops grown from those seeds would be to illegally spray dicamba to protect the crops from weeds. Spraying dicamba is illegal because it can drift to other farmers’ fields and destroy their crops. The suit alleges Monsanto chose to sell the Xtend seeds knowing that such destructive spraying would be inevitable.
According to the attorneys representing the Landers, Monsanto chose to sell these seeds before they could be safely cultivated. Monsanto’s own advertising repeatedly describes its Xtend seeds and its accompanying herbicide as a ‘system’ intended to be used together. But when Monsanto failed to get approval to sell the herbicide, it recklessly chose to go ahead and sell the seeds regardless. The inevitable result was farmers throughout the country used illegal and dangerous herbicides to try to protect the Xtend seeds. That inappropriate use of herbicides, which Monsanto knew would occur and encouraged, decimated hundreds of thousands of acres of crops nationwide.
The lawsuit alleges that Steven and Dee Landers’ farms have been greatly damaged by the illegal herbicide spraying to protect Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Xtend crop system.
The ten states affected by dicamba damage and subject to the class action are Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.
The Complaint seeks damages for claims including negligence, strict liability, failure to warn, conspiracy, disgorgement of profits, and punitive damages.
Plaintiffs are represented by Randles & Splittgerber, LLP, of Kansas City, MO. The case is Steven W. Landers, et al v. Monsanto Company, Case No. 1:17-cv-00020
