A federal judge says a Carlinville farmer still owes more than $7.4 million to Monsanto for allegedly keeping proprietary soybean seeds that the company says they had hired the farmer to grow as "parent seed" that would be resold to retailers, and instead used it to plant his own crops.
On Aug. 26, U.S. District Judge Sue Myerscough in federal court in Springfield revived a judgment against defendant Rick Rosentreter.
The original judgment dates to 2017, when Monsanto prevailed against Rosentreter in court in a dispute over claims the farmer allegedly improperly appropriated a portion of a soybean harvest that Monsanto said it should have owned in its entirety.
Monsanto filed its lawsuit in 2016, about two years after Rosentreter collected a portion of a soybean harvest that had been planted from a proprietary herbicide-resistant soybean seed developed by Monsanto.
Such herbicide-resistant seeds are valued because they allow farmers to spray weedkillers, like glyphosate, on their farm fields without harming their crops, thus typically increasing yields.
According to the underlying lawsuit, Monsanto had entered into a contract with Kirbach Farms to plant, raise and harvest these modified soybeans using Asgrow 4632 seed on about 900 acres of land owned by Rosentreter in Macoupin County in 2014.
The harvested soybeans, known as "commercial seed," were to be then collected, processed and bagged by Monsanto to be sold and distributed to retailers, who would then sell the products to other farmers to raise their own crops.
According to the lawsuit, Kirbach Farms completed the planting and growing process.
However, Rosentreter allegedly then expressed concerns to Monsanto that he feared Kirbach would not be able to pay what he believed he was owed for the use of his land.
According to the complaint, Rosentreter then allegedly refused to allow Kirbach to completed the harvest, and instead harvested 280 acres of soybeans himself.
However, when Monsanto went to collect the soybeans, they claim Rosentreter threatened their employees with arrest.
According to the complaint, Monsanto alleges Rosentreter allegedly kept about 5,000 bushels of soybeans from the 2014 harvest.
According to the complaint, Monsanto believes Rosentreter ultimately used the seed to plant his own soybean crop in 2015.
Monsanto then filed suit and obtained a judgment worth more than $5.8 million. The court also ordered him to pay an additional $1 million in attorney fees and costs at that time, for a total of more than $6.8 million.
With interest, the judgment has since risen to $7.4 million.
In the seven years since, Monsanto says Rosentreter has paid them only about $12,100.
While federal law generally imposes a limit of seven years on such judgments, Myerscough said successful parties can petition for the judgments to be revived within 20 years of the initial judgment date.
In this case, Myerscough said it was an easy call, and agreed to revive the judgment against Rosentreter.
Monsanto has been represented in the action by attorney Brian Hockett, of Thompson Coburn LLP, of St. Louis.
No attorney currently is representing Rosentreter in the action.