Category Archives: Dicamba

Court of Appeals Reverses $60 Million Punitive Damage Award for Peach Farmer in Dicamba Trial

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently vacated a $60 million punitive damage verdict in a dicamba lawsuit filed by a Missouri peach farmer. Background Dicamba is a herbicide product that kills broadleaf weeds.  Traditional dicamba formulations also kill growing crops, and thus, dicamba was not used as an over-the-top herbicide during the growing season.  That changed, however, when Monsanto developed dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton seeds.  The seeds, Xtend, were released in 2015.  However, at that time, there was no corresponding dicamba herbicide labeled… Read More →

July 22, 2022 Weekly Round Up

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Happy Friday!  Here are some of the ag law stories in the news over the past couple of weeks. * Court overturns punitive damage award in case involving peach farm and dicamba drift.  The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has overturned a $60 million punitive damage award in a case involving dicamba drift damage to a Missouri peach farm.  The court affirmed the remainder of the case, but has ordered a new trial on the sole issue of punitive damages.  I’ll have a blog post… Read More →

April 1, 2022 Weekly Round Up

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Happy April! We’ve got lots of happenings in the agricultural law world today. *US Supreme Court will hear case challenging constitutionality of California’s Proposition 12. The United States Supreme Court has granted the Petition for Certiorari in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, a case challenging the animal confinement provisions and corresponding product sales limitations imposed on pork producers. Lower courts dismissed the challenge brought by the National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau Federation claiming that the law runs afoul of the Constitution. [Read article here.]… Read More →

March 18, 2022 Weekly Round Up

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It has a been a wild couple of weeks around here with seven presentations since the last Weekly Round Up.  Like my schedule, it’s been a busy couple of weeks in the ag law realm as well. * Parties continue settlement discussions in Texas v. New Mexico.  As noted last week, the Special Master overseeing the litigation in Texas v. New Mexico postponed the trial date and gave the parties until March 1 to report back on settlement negotiations.  The parties have asked for additional time to continue ongoing negotiations and will… Read More →

March 4, 2022 Weekly Round Up

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Happy Friday!  There have been a number of agricultural law stories in the news over the past couple of weeks. *Texas Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Hlavinka v. HSC Pipeline Partnership.  The Texas Supreme Court recently heard oral arguments in an important eminent domain case analyzing what a pipeline must show in order to claim common carrier status and the ability of a landowner to testify regarding other pipeline easement values.  To read my summary of the court of appeals’ decision being reviewed by the Supreme Court, click… Read More →

January 21, 2022 Weekly Round Up

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2022 has kicked off with a bang in the agricultural law realm.  There has been plenty of news over the last couple of weeks. *Livestock Forage Protection deadline next week.  The deadline to sign up for the Livestock Forage Protection Program is January 31, 2022 for anyone in a qualifying county.  LFP provides payments to livestock producers who are also producers of grazed forage crops that have suffered a loss of grazed forage due to qualifying drought conditions.  Sign up is done through the Farm Service Agency (FSA) office… Read More →

January 7, 2022 Weekly Round Up

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Welcome to our first Weekly Round Up of the year.  Here are a few of the ag law stories in the news over the past several weeks. *State of Texas files amicus brief supporting landowner in Texas Central Railway case.  The State of Texas has filed an amicus brief on the side of the landowner in Texas Central Railroad & Infrastructure v. Miles, a lawsuit challenging Texas Central Railway’s use of eminent domain power.  [Read prior blog post here.]  The State’s briefing supports the landowner’s argument that Texas… Read More →

2021 Ag Law Year in Review – National

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Happy 2022!  As we do each year, we’ve compiled our list of some of the biggest agricultural law stories in 2021.  Today, we will take a look at this from the national level.  Next week, we will take a look at Texas-specific issues.  To hear Paul Goeringer and I discuss the biggest issues of 2021, click here to listen to our year-end episode of the Ag Law in the Field Podcast. Waters of the United States If there has been one constant over the last 5 years, it… Read More →

December 17, 2021 Weekly Round Up

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Here we are with our final Weekly Round Up of 2021!   It has been quite the year. We will have our annual nationwide and Texas-specific year-in-review blog posts coming up over the next couple of weeks, and we recently released an Ag Law in the Field Podcast episode recapping the year from an ag law perspective here. Here are some recent news stories that may be of interest. *EPA considering modifications to dicamba approval, but offers no timeline.  A senior regulatory specialist with EPA stated that “the agency… Read More →

December 3, 2021 Weekly Round Up

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Happy December!  There has been a lot of agricultural law news over the past few weeks, so here are some of the biggest stories impacting agriculture. *Texas Supreme Court denied petition for review in Lyle v. Midway Solar.  Earlier this year, the El Paso Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit filed by mineral owners against a solar company for building a solar farm on the property.  The court held that the accommodation doctrine would apply, but that because the mineral owner had not sought to actually develop the minerals,… Read More →