Lawsuit

Deere & Co. Reaches $99 Million Settlement in Multiyear ‘Right-to-Repair’ Litigation

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 13:42:06 GMT

On April 6, Deere & Co. announced a settlement agreement resolving the “right-to-repair” litigation before the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The company will pay $99 million (plus interest accruing since Jan. 15) into a settlement fund for the benefit of the settlement class. In a press release , the company states the agreement brings the case to a close with “no finding of wrongdoing.”

The agreement marks a pivotal moment in the multi-year legal battle, aiming to compensate producers for repair restrictions while avoiding a formal admission of liability. While Deere marks the move as a step toward better customer support, the settlement fuels a debate with advocates who argue the payout fails to address control over farm machinery repairs.

Under the terms of the settlement, Deere will establish a fund to cover administrative and legal fees, with the remainder distributed to eligible class members. Deere says it remains committed to supporting customers with access to manuals, diagnostic software and specialized tools.

“As we continue to innovate industry-leading equipment and technology solutions supported by our world-class dealer network, we are equally committed to providing customers and other service providers with access to repair resources,” says Denver Caldwell, vice president, aftermarket & customer support. “We’re pleased that this resolution allows us to move forward and remain focused on what matters most – serving our customers.”

Industry Advocates Raise Questions Amid Settlement Announcement

Despite the settlement, some are still skeptical.

“I suspect there is a lot less to this deal than meets the eye,” says Gay Gordon-Byrne, executive director of the Repair Association .

She has questions, including: In the settlement, Deere agreed to make available to farmers for 10 years “the digital tools required for the maintenance, diagnosis and repair” of large agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines and sugarcane harvesters. What does that mean for other John Deere equipment?

In response, John Deere says its latest digital self-repair tool, Operations Center PRO Service, launched in July 2025, is designed to enhance how John Deere equipment owners use, maintain, diagnose, repair and protect their equipment. The tool provides support capabilities across John Deere’s agriculture, turf, construction and forestry equipment portfolio.

Yet unknown, Gordon-Byrne says, are the outcomes of 16 right-to-repair bills that cover ag equipment filed this year in 16 states.

“Several are likely to pass with much stronger requirements,” she adds.

Meanwhile, Willie Cade, Repair Association board member and a consultant on the case since it was filed in 2022, says he believes Deere will continue to move the goalposts and keep farmers reliant on their “monopolistic” repair policy.

“It’s too little, too late, and it will not fundamentally change the monopolistic repair environment that Deere enjoys,” he says.

The settlement must still be approved by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

UFW wins preliminary injunction against USDA suspension of labor survey

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:28:04 GMT

In a decision praised by farmworker advocates, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California has issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision in September to suspend the annual Farm Labor Survey.

Unless the decision is appealed, the decision means that the USDA must conduct the Farm Labor Survey and issue its annual USDA Farm Labor Report in November.

The survey is used to determine the adverse effect wage rate for the Department of Labor’s H-2A guest agricultural worker program. The United Farm Workers and plaintiffs sued the USDA for its decision to suspend the survey. The UFW argued that, in the absence of the survey, wages for guest workers would decline sharply because the Department of Labor would not have data to establish new wage rates other than state minimum wages.

Micheal Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council for Agricultural Employers , said he did not know whether the USDA will appeal the decision from the district court.

“They could ask for a stay of the lower court’s order pending appeal,” he said.

Another relevant development, he said, is a Department of Labor proposal to create a new method to determine H-2A wages, which is in the final review stage at the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

“We should see that part sooner rather than later,” Marsh said.

The industry also is waiting on other parts of an expected rule from the Department of Labor on H-2A reform, Marsh said.

Court decision

If the Department of Labor relied on state minimum wages rates instead of USDA survey data, the H-2A wage paid in California would be $14, at least 77 cents lower per hour than if the adverse effect wage rate would have been calculated, according to the lawsuit.

In Florida, the 2020 H-2A adverse effect wage rate is $11.71 per hour, while the state minimum wage is $8.56.

“The court finds that plaintiffs (UFW) are likely to succeed on the merits of this claim. As plaintiffs note, defendant USDA’s cursory, one-page decision provides no indication that the USDA considered the impact on farmworker wages caused by its decision to eliminate the (survey),” according to the Oct. 28 court opinion from Judge Dale Drozd.

Bruce Goldstein, president of Farmworker Justice, said the group was pleased with the court action.
“The USDA’s sudden cancellation of the Farm Labor Survey of employers that sets the principal H-2A wage protection is an end-run around changing the H-2A regulations in a cruel effort to slash farmworkers’ wages,” Goldstein said in a news release. “Farmworkers are among the lowest-paid workers and among the most vulnerable workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The suspension of the USDA Farm Labor Survey would mean that the applicable H-2A wage rates for most workers in 2021 would not be a measure of market-rate wages, Farmworker Justice said in the release. The group said most farmworkers would be offered the state or federal minimum wage, which is “substantially lower” in all 50 states than the adverse effect wage rates.

H-2A employers find complications in H-2A outbreak

Suspended labor survey sows confusion over H-2A wage rates

Ag Groups File Suit on Rare Bats and Other Endangered Species

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:02:35 GMT

A lawsuit filed by the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association and the Texas Farm Bureau is asking for five species to be reassigned under the Endangered Species Act.

According to the Santa Fe New Mexican , court papers were filed in Albuquerque’s U.S. District Court late-November to have the Kuenzler hedgehog cactus, the Tobusch fishhook cactus, the gypsum wild-buckwheat, the lesser long-nosed bat, and the black-capped vireo reclassified.

Removing those plants and animals federal endangered species list would aid landowners, farmers and ranchers who have strict habitat management requirements.

For instance, saguaro cactus and agaves need to be available for the bats to forage. Caves and mines must be left undisturbed for the bats to roost.

Black Gold Farms starts Texas potato harvest soon

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 07:38:19 GMT

Black Gold Farms , Grand Forks, N.D., will start harvest of red potatoes in Texas soon.

The company will be harvesting the potatoes for about a month, starting in early May in Pearsall, Texas, according to a news release. Harvest then shifts to Missouri acreage.

The new-crop potatoes will be arriving as retailers see strong spring demand due to consumer reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic in May.

“We’ve been able to manage demand as best as we can during this difficult time,” Keith Groven, director of operations, said in the release. “However, there’s nothing better than seeing the harvesters run and getting our own fresh red potatoes in the market.”

There was a light freeze during the growing season, but its effect on production will be minimal, said Steve Wright, the company’s Pearsall farm manager.

The red potatoes are available in “locally grown” five-pound poly bags and half bins for Texas programs.

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Lawsuit by growers charges C.H. Robinson with illegal practices

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 20:00:23 GMT

A lawsuit by multiple U.S. and foreign growers charges C.H. Robinson/Robinson Fresh with “illegal and deceptive” business practices.

The Jan. 16 complaint claims that Eden Prairie, Minn.-based C.H. Robinson/ Robinson Fresh:

Represented fees from growers as their own donations to breast cancer organizations;
Structured the transportation of consigned produce in a way — termed freight topping — that benefited C.H. Robinson rather than growers;
Contracted for an additional reduction of 2% of freight charges and did not pass the savings on to plaintiffs;
Received rebates from seed suppliers and didn’t pass them on to growers; and
Received rebates from CHEP USA but did not pass them on to growers.

The plaintiff’s lawsuit was submitted by Craig Stokes, of Stokes Law Office, San Antonio.

Plaintiffs are:

David Moore, doing business as Moore Family Farms;
Terry Lusk, Jason Lusk and Justin Lusk, doing business as JTJ Farms;
Kevin Rentz, Amanda Calhoun Rentz, Dennis Bruce Rentz and Karla Jo Rentz, doing business as Rentz Family Farms;
Kevin Coggins, doing business as Mek Farms;
Bowles Farming Co. Inc.;
Agropecuaria Los Americanos S.C. de R.L. de C.V.;
Phil Sandifer & Sons Farms LLC;
JMB Farm LLC;
Powe Farms Management LLC
CA Comercial S.A.C.;
Global Fresh S.A.C.; and
Pepas Tropicales Del Peru S.A.C;

C.H. Robinson has until early March to respond to the complaint in court, but the company issued a statement to The Packer Feb. 10 stating the “complaint was designed to capture media attention, and it contains an enormous amount of self-serving falsehoods as well as blatant mischaracterizations and fabrications about our company, teams and the actual agreements signed by the growers themselves.”

C.H. Robinson plans to oppose the plaintiffs’ plan to pursue class-action status of the lawsuit.

“We deny any and all allegations of wrongdoing and look forward to vigorously defending our actions, as well as filing legitimate counterclaims against the growers.”

In the company’s statement, C.H. Robinson said it loaned several of the growers listed in the complaint money to finance their businesses.

“Now that the money is due to be repaid, these growers are using this complaint to avoid paying their debts. C.H. Robinson will assert its right to collect the significant amounts it is owed by the growers,” according to the statement.

Stokes said plaintiffs are seeking class action status from the court, and that claims of freight topping could apply to “hundreds if not thousands of growers.” Stokes said he was aware of only one grower plaintiff who owes money to C.H. Robinson.

Stokes alleges that C.H. Robinson inflated freight costs and included that number in the delivered cost to the buyer.

“So you take the delivered cost, minus the freight inflated by (X percent), and then that number was reported to the grower as the f.o.b. price,” he said.

While contracts with growers clearly spelled out the sales commission charged by C.H. Robinson, Stokes said the contracts made no mention of C.H. Robinson making money on freight.

“If you are going to charge for something, you put it in the contract and get permission,” Stokes said. “Tell the grower how much you’re going to mark up the truckers’ invoices and get the growers’ permission.”

C.H. Robinson said in its statement that the company did not violate any expressed or implied duties to the growers.

“We are proud of the work we do with our teams, growers, and customers throughout the world, and we look forward to putting this entirely meritless complaint behind us,” said Michael Castagnetto, President of Robinson Fresh, a division of C.H. Robinson.

Former Philadelphia Market CEO charged with stealing $7.8 million

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:36:25 GMT

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is charging the former president and CEO of the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market, Caesar “Sonny” DiCrecchio, 60, of Voorhees, N.J., with stealing more than $7.8 million from his employer over several years before he resigned in 2018.

The U.S. Department of Justice attorney’s office in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania formally charged DiCrecchio — more than two years after an investigation began — with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering conspiracy, aggravated identity theft and tax evasion, according to a March 11 justice department news release .

Investigators allege that DiCrecchio had control over every aspect of the market, including the use of funds, and was required to report on the market’s finances to its board of directors.

“Caesar DiCrecchio stands charged with a massive theft from the Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market,” Michael J. Driscoll, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia division, said in the release. “Stealing business funds for personal use is fraud, plain and simple, and anyone padding their paycheck like this can expect a whole lot of attention from the FBI.”

DiCrecchio faces a maximum sentence of 102 years in prison, a three-year period of supervised release and a fine of $2.5 million.

Separately, a supervisor at United Check Cashing on South Broad Street in Philadelphia, Thomas Del Borrello, 42, of Sewell, N.J., was also charged with aggravated false filing of a currency transaction report and aggravated failure to file a currency transaction report.

“The Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market has and continues to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in this matter, and we look forward to those criminally responsible for the fraud being held accountable,” according to a market statement through its spokesperson, Nell Callahan, founder of the Frontwood Strategies public relations firm.

The market is one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s main sources of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Since DiCrecchio’s resignation in late summer-fall of 2018, the market has established new management, including Mark Smith as president and general manager, and new board leadership.

They are focused on ensuring that the market is a trusted partner for its vendors and customers, according to the statement.

“Over the past three years, we have implemented new policies and procedures to strengthen the market and ensure we serve our customers well,” according to the spokesperson.

According to the attorney’s office, the defendant defrauded the market by using company funds to pay $1.9 million in rent on his Stone Harbor, N.J., shore house; converting into cash $1.1 million in checks drawn on the market’s bank account and using the cash for his own benefit; causing $1.7 million in checks to be issued from the market operating account payable to his friends or relatives; causing the market to pay for the defendant’s personal credit card expenditures; converting $320,000 in checks that were payable to the market and cashing them for his own benefit; skimming $2.6 million in cash from the pay gate at the market’s parking lot, which he used to pay market employees “under the table” while keeping a substantial portion for his own use; and using market funds to provide a $180,000 loan to a market vendor, which the vendor repaid directly to DiCrecchio.

Investigators charge that the defendant concealed these expenditures in the market’s books and records by directing that these payments be reflected as legitimate business expenditures, for example: notated as maintenance, snow removal, insurance, legal fees and other false expenditure entries.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s organized crime task force, the IRS Criminal Investigation department, and the Pennsylvania state police, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael T. Donovan.

Court action filed to stop new H-2A wage rates

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 21:33:06 GMT

Seeking to stop higher 2019 wage rates for the H-2A guest worker program, the National Council of Agricultural Employers has filed a court action against the Department of Labor.

The Washington, D.C.-based NCAE said in a news release that it asked the federal district court for the District of Columbia to enjoin the U.S. Department of Labor from implementing new Adverse Effective Wage Rates for 2019.

The Department of Labor recently published the 2019 adverse effective wage rates, which dictate minimum wage rates for the H-2A program.

The 2019 adverse effect wage rate for California is $13.92 per hour, up 5.6% compared with $13.18 per hour last year. For Washington state, the 2019 adverse effect wage rate is $15.03 per hour, up 6.4% from $14.12 per hour in 2018. The 2019 wage rage for Colorado was $13.13 per hour, up 22.8% from just $10.69 per hour in 2018.

The overall national average adverse effect wage rate for 2019 is $12.96 per hour, up 6.2% compared with $12.20 per hour a year ago.

In the filing, the NCAE states that the group “bring this action seeking emergency relief from the Department of Labor’s plan to impose arbitrary and unsubstantiated cost increases on American farms and ranches. The Department’s actions are contrary to the directions and intentions of Congress and must be enjoined as soon as possible to avoid disastrous and irreparable outcomes.”

Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the NCAE, said in the release that the adverse effect wage rate is designed so that domestic U. S. workers will not be adversely affected by the employment of temporary agricultural workers under the H-2A visa program.

“Yet DOL has not offered any data to demonstrate adverse effect and instead has simply imposed additional costs on family farmers and ranchers who have no means to recoup these costs from the marketplace putting their families’ futures in jeopardy,” Marsh said in the release.

Late last year, NCAE had written a letter to the Secretaries of Agriculture and Labor asking that they intervene in not implementing the 2019 adverse effect wage rate, which the group called “unsustainable.”

The release said NCAE has been working with Congress to direct the Department of Labor and Department of Agriculture to conduct an analysis of whether any adverse effect exists and share that analysis prior to a determination on program criteria.
Marsh said in the release that users of the guest worker program must have wage relief.

“A requirement to pay a premium wage should, at a minimum, come with a finding that U.S. workers “similarly employed” would actually be “adversely affected” by the employment of H-2A workers at some other rate,” he said in the release.

Driscoll’s claims patent infringement by California Berry Cultivars

Fri, 23 Sep 2022 18:42:55 GMT

Watsonville, Calif.-based Driscoll’s Inc. has filed a complaint in federal court against strawberry breeding company California Berry Cultivars and the company’s co-founder Douglas Shaw.

A spokesperson for California Berry Cultivars could not immediately be reached for comment.

The lawsuit, filed in the Sacramento Division of the Eastern District of California, alleges patent infringement and conversion of Driscoll’s proprietary strawberry varieties, according to a news release.

Plant patents and plant breeder rights are protected under international and U.S. legal systems.

“Driscoll’s has made it our mission to produce fresh berries that consistently delight consumers through a hallmark of great flavor. We’ve been able to differentiate the flavor of our berries by investing in our dedicated, traditional breeding program, which provides exclusive varieties to hundreds of independent family farmers,” Driscoll’s chairman and CEO Miles Reiter said in the release. “We believe in a fair and competitive marketplace, and will take required actions to protect our research, patents and proprietary varieties.”

This suit follows earlier litigation between UC Davis and California Berry Cultivars (CBC) in May 2017, according to the release, where a jury found CBC had committed willful patent infringement. As a result of the trial, certain CBC breeding records were made public, according to the release. Those records, Driscoll’s said in the release, reveal that CBC had been breeding with several of Driscoll’s varieties.

“We will stand up for our patented varieties and the farming families who rely on our breeding programs,” said Driscoll’s general counsel Tom O’Brien said in the release. “Driscoll’s and all of the strawberry breeding programs in California have an interest in fostering fair competition that benefits consumers and growers. We cannot and will not abide by the illegal and unauthorized use of our varieties and believe that all breeding programs should be protected from these kinds of actions.”

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