Selected counsel to lead Syngenta lawsuits

The United States District Court in Kansas has named a team of four attorneys to lead the multi-district litigation cases filed against Syngenta, a news release from the attorneys announced.

The entire co-lead counsel team includes Gray, Ritter & Graham’s Don Downing; Gray Reed & McGraw’s William Chaney; Hare, Wynn, Newell & Newton’s Scott Powell; and Stueve Siegel Hanson’s Patrick Stueve.   

According to the lawyers, currently, Syngenta faces over 360 lawsuits filed in courts across the country by corn farmers, grain handlers, exporters and others. As co-lead counsel, Chaney, Downing, Powell and Stueve will lead the preparation and presentation of all plaintiffs' claims against Syngenta. Their duties include coordinating all discovery in the cases, and speaking on behalf of plaintiffs at all court conferences and hearings.

The news releases states, “The lawsuits, filed last year and into this year, allege that Syngenta knowingly released genetically modified corn into the marketplace as part of their Agrisure Viptera and Agrisure Duracade lines. American corn farmers grew that corn, which was sold to grain handlers and ultimately attempted to sell to China. However, China, a major importer of U.S. corn, detected the genetic trait found in Viptera (MIR162) and began refusing shipments of U.S. corn.”