May 2005
Trial Outcome May Set New Seed Liability Precedent
Paul Earnest Jr., who farms several hundred acres with his family in Bridgeton, N.J., stated that the eggplants, nurtured from seed since March in a greenhouse, gave no hint of a problem until they were in the field and fruited late June 1999, and that the color was not the "deep, dark purple" consumers expect, but "more like something from a crayon," adding, "if I remember right, they were more shaped like a basketball." The culprit was bad seeds sold as Special HiBush Eggplant by Harris Moran Seed Co., and in January, the eggplant growers won a settlement for the unwanted crop in a ruling that could have far-reaching implications, especially since it bucked precedents in other states.
Initially, Harris Moran was cited as saying the farmers were due about $5,250, the purchase price of the seeds, but the company agreed to pay $1.55 million after a judge issued a ruling that put Harris Moran at risk of trial. Thousands of acres of the odd eggplants had been plowed under, and farmers claimed losses totaling nearly $2.76 million. Earnest was quoted as saying, "Nobody could sell them, because everything we sell has to look pretty. Anything that has a nick, we can't sell it, much less being the wrong color." The seeds were not the expected Special HiBush Eggplant, and the judge determined that New Jersey and federal truth-in-labeling laws trumped the Uniform Commercial Code. The code, which governs transactions between merchants, could have limited the company's liability to the price of the seeds. The farmers' lawyer was quoted as saying, "It is an approach to seed litigation that not a lot of people have taken successfully in the past. I don't think it's a maverick case. It's good law." The opposing lawyer was cited as saying he found no broad implications from the ruling, adding, "Another judge in another county, or the same county, on another day, may very well rule a different way." In seeking to have the lawsuit dismissed, the company said it had no way of knowing the seeds, produced in India, were not Special HiBush Eggplant. (Associated Press, 4/4/05).
