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West v. G & H Seed Co.8/28/2002
seed distributor defendants' customers are primarily rice farmers and that rice farmers are not members of the putative class. However, the evidence adduced at the hearing shows that many of the rice farmers who purchased ICON-treated seed were also crawfish farmers whose use of ICON-treated seed affected other crawfish farmers. We are satisfied as to the sufficiency of the evidence presented regarding these claimants, and therefore do not find the definition of Subclass 1 to be vague or overbroad.
With respect to the seed distributor defendants, plaintiffs offered sufficient proof of numerosity for each of them, even though a limited number of putative class members purchased ICON-treated seed from them. As defendants Nolan Guillot and Mamou Rice point out, they did not necessarily sell ICON to all putative class members. G & H Seed argues that only a very limited number of potential claimants could possibly be entitled to a recovery from any seed company, much less those named as defendants. G & H Seed argues that plaintiffs failed to establish the number of rice farmers purchasing ICON-treated rice seed from each defendant. We find no merit to these arguments.
The Subclass definitions are not worded such that the numerosity requirement is defeated even though each of the seed distributor defendants did not sell ICON-treated seed to each individual putative class member. The Subclass definitions do not reference any one particular seed distributor defendant, nor do they require that putative members stake claims against one particular seed distributor in order to be a member of the putative class. For example, as stated earlier, Subclass 1 encompasses individuals who purchased ICON-treated seed for rice operations and who allege damages to their crawfish crop's exposure to ICON. Subclass 2 encompasses individuals who farmed crawfish in ponds which had been planted with ICON-treated seed and who allege damages as a result of exposure to ICON. And though these putative class members may not have purchased the ICON-treated seed themselves, as with Subclass 1, these crawfish farmers were exposed to ICON-treated seed purchased from seed distributors, and are therefore included in the numerosity calculation. The same is true for those in Subclass 3 who participated in a sharecropping arrangement. Plaintiffs have dubbed Subclass 3 the "tailwater Subclass," comprising those crawfish farmers who allege damage from ICON runoff or tailwater. This ICON was purchased from seed distributors and members of Subclass 3 are therefore included in the numerosity calculation.
The judgment's three Subclasses potentially implicate the alleged liability of all collective seed distributor defendants, and from Aventis. We agree with plaintiffs that the three Subclasses were certified to pursue claims against all seed distributor defendants and also to pursue claims against Aventis, the primary defendant-manufacturer. Refusal to certify a defendant class is not evidence to the contrary. Under the theories advanced by plaintiffs, the seed distributor defendants can only be liable to either individuals to whom ICON-treated seed was sold or those who crawfished in rice fields contaminated with ICON-treated seed purchased from one or more of the seed distributor defendants. According to plaintiffs, those class members who did not purchase seed from the seed distributor defendants and who did not crawfish in fields contaminated with ICON-treated seed purchased from them have no claims against the seed distributor defendants. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in collectively considering all defendants, including Aventis in this case for purposes of calculating numerosity of the plaintiff class.
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