Syngenta Corp. asked a Minnesota federal court to deny a commercial farmer’s motion to remand a GMO corn lawsuit to state court, arguing that the plaintiff’s case should remain in the federal court system.

In the company’s motion to dismiss the Syngenta GMO corn lawsuit, Syngenta claims that plaintiff Trojan Biomass LLC has attempted to minimize China’s role in the loss of profits for many farmers and farming companies when the nation decided to reject any U.S. corn shipments that were allegedly tainted with the Syngenta’s GMO corn seed, Viptera.

Sygenta further argues that Trojan GMO corn claims will require a court to review China’s actions pertaining to the Viptera corn rejection, an action which generally falls under federal, not state, jurisdiction.

According to the company’s bid to dismiss this GMO corn lawsuit: “While plaintiff now tries to pretend that China was only ‘tangentially involved in some activities related to the case,’ the theory of injury outlined in the complaint tells a different story. Plaintiff complains that he ‘has incurred losses, damage and injury resulting from the rejection of United States-grown corn by export markets’ — specifically, the ‘reduction and/or prevention of [imports of] United States corn into China.’ The complaint thus makes clear that China’s actions were the direct cause of plaintiff’s alleged injury.”

Trojan’s Syngenta GMO corn lawsuit is one of many lawsuits consolidated in federal court. This commercial farmer and other Syngenta lawsuit plaintiffs claim that their complaints do not raise federal issues and therefore do not require federal jurisdiction.

A GMO corn multidistrict litigation (or MDL) may be more convenient for Syngenta, but Trojan and others argue that it is wrong of the company to seek federal jurisdiction over their state law claims.

The Syngenta GMO Corn Lawsuit is Case No. 0:15-cv-00281, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Syngenta GMO Corn Litigation

There are more than 1,500 Syngenta GMO corn lawsuits awaiting trial in state and federal courts across the nation, similarly alleging that the company caused substantial loss to the U.S. corn industry by promoting and selling its Viptera corn before China approved this strain of genetically modified corn.

Multiple Syngenta GMO corn lawsuits claim that Syngenta’s early release of the Viptera corn cost the U.S. corn market $1 billion to $3 billion because of the seizure and rejection of numerous U.S. container and cargo ships that transported U.S. corn with Syngenta’s Viptera strain.

In December, China finally approved MIR 162, Viptera’s genetically modified trait which gives the corn crop increased insect resistance. However, this approval came almost five years after Syngenta submitted paperwork for GMO trait approval.

At that time it was approved by the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Paraguay and Uruguay. Despite these countries’ Viptera approval, China’s delay in approving MIR 162 has allegedly caused market instability for U.S. corn farmers.