A corn farmer asked a Minnesota federal court to reject biotech giant Syngenta’s attempt to stay its decision on a motion to remand Viptera corn lawsuits to state court while the parties await the court’s decision on whether to transfer and consolidate the lawsuit to a Kansas district court.

Plaintiff Terwey Bros PRT allegeSyngenta caused it substantial losses by tainting the U.S. corn supply with the genetically modified corn seed Viptera before gaining China’s approval, stating the pending jurisdictional challenge should not delay the court’s decision on whether to remand the case to state court.

“Granting Defendants stay would force plaintiff to endure lengthy delays, followed by litigation in an inconvenient foreign jurisdiction, in which plaintiff could no longer take an active role, all in order to pursue purely Minnesota legal claims in Minnesota Court,” the court documents said.

Although multiple individual and class action Syngenta lawsuits are being consolidated in Kansas, Minnesota-based Terwey Bros argued in its motion to remand that its Syngenta lawsuit does not raise federal issues or give rise to federal jurisdiction. The multidistrict litigation format may be convenient for Syngenta, Terwey claims, but the company is wrong to argue federal jurisdiction over its solely state law claims.

The Syngenta Viptera lawsuit is Terwey et al. v. Syngenta Corporation et al., Case No. 0:15-cv-00272, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Overview of Syngenta Viptera Litigation

Corn exports from the U.S. to China had been a growing market, especially in the fall of 2013, due to a lackluster corn crop in the Asian country. American farmers reportedly experienced a “record harvest” of their corn crops, a turn of events which growers thought would have proven good news on the global market.

Instead, farmers across the country are filing lawsuits against Syngenta over Viptera corn contamination which prompted China to cancel corn orders and refuse shipments. Genetically modified (GMO) corn was rejected by China last year because Beijing officials considered the genetically engineered crop strain contaminated.

The specific type of corn, Syngenta AG’s Agrisure Viptera, had not been approved by China. The rejection of the GMO corn led to a drop in grain and soybean futures, and a three-year low for the price of corn amid concerns that China was going to limit not just corn but all agriculture imports.

“Syngenta has caused damages to U.S. farmers, grain handlers and exporters,” Viptera lawsuits say. “Syngenta’s conduct in marketing, distributing and selling unapproved corn seed violates the legal standards of the marketplace because the primary market risk falls on U.S. farmers, grain handlers and exporters, not on Syngenta.”

The Viptera lawsuits filed against Syngenta similarly claim that the biotech company was negligent because it “prematurely” sold GMO seeds before they were approved by export destinations, including China, that serve as major markets for United States corn farmers.

More than 1,500 farmers, as of June, had filed Syngenta lawsuits.

Lawsuits against Syngenta have been centralized into a multidistrict litigation known as In Re: Syngenta Ag MIR162 Corn Litigation, MDL No. 2591 in the U.S District Court, District of Kansas.