A company responsible for spraying pesticides and its employee were dismissed from Madison County farmers’ complaint alleging pesticides from a neighboring farm killed their produce crop.
The parties filed a stipulation for dismissal on Feb. 13, dismissing Jared Scott Mettler and CHS-Shipman Inc. with prejudice.
The defendants were represented by Paul Van Lysebattens and Stephanie M. Galetti of Gunty & McCarthy in Chicago.
Plaintiffs Brian and Peggy Boeser filed their complaint on Oct. 16, 2015 through attorney Stephen C. Buser of Law Office of Stephen C. Buser Ltd. in Columbia.
According to the complaint, the plaintiffs own and possess real estate and land with crops in Madison County. They allege that on that property, they own and operate the St. Morgan Produce Farm in St. Morgan near the intersection of Illinois Route 160 and Rose Road. They allege they sold a variety of produce from their field throughout the greater St. Louis metropolitan area. At the time of the alleged incident, the crop in question consisted of 17 330-foot rows of growing tomatoes, squash, zucchini, onion, broccoli, cabbage and cucumbers, which were plainly visible.
The plaintiffs allege CHS employee Mettler operated a ground sprayer to apply pesticides to a corn crop on May 6, 2014 for Gelly Farms LLC, which operates a 38 acre farm directly across from the St. Morgan Produce Farm. The pesticide mix consisted of SureStart, Atrazine and Arctic.
Prior to May 6, 2014, the plaintiffs claim they did not apply any pesticides to their produce field.
After Mettler sprayed the pesticides, the plaintiffs allege their produce crops died, were damaged and were no longer salable. They also allege the unplanted portion of the field became contaminated and damaged. As a result, they were unable to plant produce in the contaminated field until the following year.
The plaintiffs allege the defendants failed to exercise ordinary care for the safety of neighboring and nearby crops when spraying pesticides, negligently sprayed a dangerous chemical when there was a wind drift and negligently operated the spray boom allowing it to spray in one spot for an extended period of time.
The defendants denied liability in their answers to the complaint.
They argued that the plaintiffs had control over their own land and crops and failed to take reasonable steps to protect their crops from possible damage with knowledge that pesticides were used on or near neighboring lands.
They also argued that pesticides were applied for the purpose intended and in accordance with the labels provided by the manufacturer of each chemical.
The case had been set for trial on April 1 with Madison County Circuit Judge William Mudge.
Madison County Circuit Court case number 15-L-1344