Westmill and Van Sillivoldt, European importers of rice, entered into contracts with U.S. rice mills to supply them with U.S. long grain and parboiled rice. One of the requirements was that the rice could have no genetically modified (GM) organisms in it. During 2006, each of the mills supplied GM rice to Westmill and VSR. The claim of the mills was that this rice had become contaminated by cross-mingling of crops during development by Bayer AG. Therefore the mills as well as Bayer were named as defendants. The Westmill and VSR cases were joined in an MDL in St. Louis. After extensive discovery, Frost Brown Todd negotiated an amended case schedule which included a mandatory mediation provision before Judge Steven Limbaugh, a retired federal judge appointed by the MDL presiding judge to handle settlement discussions.
Outcome
Through these court-ordered mediations Westmill and VSR were able to settle their cases. They were the first European importers to successfully resolve their claims.