South Dakota Ag Connection - Federal Court Consolidates Cattle Antitrust Cases

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Federal Court Consolidates Cattle Antitrust Cases
South Dakota Ag Connection - 07/16/2019

This past week, the Federal District Court for District of Minnesota ordered the consolidation of the various class action claims against Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef that have been filed on behalf of cattle producers and CME users. R-CALF filed the first such complaint in April, with others subsequently filing similar suits.

By the Court's order, the R-CALF action (Civil No. 19-cv-1222 (JRT/HB)) was designated as the lead case file. The Court also appointed R-CALF's counsel, Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law LLP, along with Cafferty Clobes Meriwether & Sprengel LLP, as interim lead counsel for the proposed classes of fed cattle producers and CME live cattle contract users. The consolidated case will be captioned "In Re Cattle Antitrust Litigation."

R-CALF and the other plaintiffs filed a consolidated amended complaint today. That complaint supersedes the prior complaints filed in the consolidated actions.

The court is expected to shortly set the deadline for the defendants to either file an answer to the consolidated complaint or move to dismiss the claim.

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