A federal judge has issued an order that will allow hundreds of Viptera corn lawsuits to go forward against the agricultural giant Syngenta.

U.S. District Judge John W. Lungstrum ruled against Syngenta’s bid to dismiss claims filed by farmers and American agricultural companies who allegedly suffered financial damages as a result of Syngenta’s genetically modified (GM) Viptera and Duracade corn seed.

Syngenta is facing approximately 380 lawsuits dealing with sales of Viptera and Duracade corn seeds. The Viptera corn seed is a genetically modified strain, also called MIR 162, which Syngenta developed to help prevent against pests like blackcut worms.

After Brazil and Argentina approved Viptera and Duracade for export to their countries, Syngenta sold the corn seed to American farmers not anticipating any problems.

The company had submitted the corn seed for export approval to China in 2010, but had not yet received approval when it began selling and marketing the corn strain to American farmers.

Unfortunately, China denied the Viptera corn seed in 2013, leading to that country’s ultimate rejection of any American corn shipments potentially containing Viptera corn.

China’s refusal to allow the GM seeds in to the country allegedly caused major economic damages to a large swath of the American corn industry.

Thousands of farmers and agriculture industry workers claim they suffered as a result of the dramatic drop in the corn market after China turned away the Viptera seeds. Experts state the financial damages are unlikely to stop any time soon.

Before the Viptera debacle, China was the third largest importer of U.S. corn, buying up to 2.5 million tons per year. By 2014, the shipments were down by 85 percent. Only 375,000 tons of American corn made their way in to China.

It was only on Dec. 22, 2014, that Syngenta announced China had finally approved MIR 162 corn for export. By that time, however, farmers estimate that over $1 billion in damages had already been done.

Overview of Syngenta Corn Litigation Movement

Due to their similar nature, various Syngenta lawsuits have been consolidated into a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, in the District of Kansas under Judge Lungstrum.

In an order issued in September 2015, Judge Lungstrum denied Syngenta’s motion to dismiss the numerous lawsuits against it. Syngetna unsuccessfully argued that the claims against them were too broad, and stated that the allegations of negligence and false advertising were untrue.

Judge Lungstrum’s order stated that the plaintiffs proved that there was no way they could have foreseen the damages done by the Syngenta corn. The plaintiffs stated that while they could not foresee the damages, Syngenta certainly could, as they were aware that China had initially rejected their GMO corn seed, but had not informed American farmers.

At this point, there have been no settlement agreements in the Syngenta corn litigation. Experts state that if a settlement cannot be reached to resolve the charges, the Syngenta corn lawsuits may be remanded back to the district courts they were originally filed in.