LITTLE ROCK — A counterclaim filed by an Arkansas rice grower challenging the quality and yields of hybrid rice seed supplied by Houston, Texas,-based RiceTec Inc. was dismissed Tuesday by a Greene County circuit judge.
In July, Scott Meredith of Delaplaine filed the counterclaim in a dispute over whether he owed the seed company any money for seed he purchased in 2008 that Meredith said didn’t meet the company’s promises that it would produce higher yields than conventional nonhybrid long-grain rice seed.
Circuit Judge David Laser issued the order dismissing the counterclaim after an Oct. 15 hearing in the case.
Laser’s order said that in late 2008, Meredith purchased RiceTec seed worth $60,468, prepaying $32,906. However, Meredith said that during harvest, he averaged 70 to 95 bushels per acre, rather than the “171 to 201 bushels he was expecting.” As a result, he refused to pay the outstanding balance “because of these alleged performance defects.”
However, the judge wrote that Meredith did not file any notice that he intended to seek arbitration over the RiceTec seed as required by Arkansas’ Defective Seed Act, Ark. Code Ann. 2-23-101 et seq., “to permit inspection of the crops or plants during the growing season.”
The judge said dismissal was warranted because of the Seed Act, as well as an Arkansas Supreme Court Ruling in Slussere v. Farm Serv., Inc., affirming the dismissal of a similar case where a farmer failed to meet mandatory notice requirements.
“Because the seed at issue was planted and harvested in 2009, it is now impossible for Meredith to comply with the defective seed acts requirements,” the order stated.
RiceTec initially sued Meredith in 2011 for the full amount of his bill after he refused to pay. Meredith and other farmers who asked to intervene in the case said the RiceTec seed produced rice with a thinner husk that is easily damaged during milling and doesn’t store well. The countersuit also claimed that the RiceTec seed doesn’t come up properly.
In a statement Tuesday, RiceTec President John Nelson said his company plans to continue investing in the development of new hybrid rice varieties while working with rice farmers.
“RiceTec has set the standard for lowering the carbon footprint for rice production while developing higheryielding, more disease-tolerant, top-quality hybrid rice plant that has proven itself on the American farm, and we will continue to do so,” Nelson said.
Nelson said RiceTec has invested more than $75 million toward research, product development and customer support, and plans to invest another $130 million over the next five years.
Meredith’s counterclaim attracted interest from other rice farmers. In early October, farmers from Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana who asked to intervene in Meredith’s counterclaim withdrew their motion.
At the time, their attorney Clayton Smaistrla of San Antonio, whose firm also represented Meredith, said the decision to drop the motion was made to minimize appeals and litigation in Meredith’s countersuit.
Smaistrla did not return a telephone message left at his office Tuesday afternoon.
Business, Pages 25 on 11/21/2012