Downing Named Chair of Plaintiffs' Executive Committee in Dicamba Multidistrict Litigation

Gray Ritter Graham attorney Don Downing has been appointed Chair of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee in the dicamba multidistrict litigation pending in the United States District Court, Eastern District of Missouri.

The ruling, made by U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh, Jr., places Downing as lead plaintiffs’ counsel and head of the nine-attorney Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee, which will represent farmers in several states who have filed lawsuits over Monsanto’s dicamba herbicide.  The farmers allege they suffered economic damages due to Monsanto’s decision to commercialize dicamba resistant seeds without a safe formulation of the dicamba herbicide to spray over the top of plants grown from those seeds.   All current versions of dicamba are prone to move off target, the lawsuits allege.

Downing previously served as co-lead counsel for U.S. farmers in multidistrict litigation over contamination by GMO rice seed, resulting in a $750 million settlement, and co-lead plaintiffs’ counsel for corn producers in a nationwide class action lawsuit over the marketing of GMO corn in the United States, which this month received preliminary Court approval for a $1.51 billion settlement obtained in March 2018.

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Posted in News April 25, 2018