All charges brought against the dairy nutrition company Progressive Dairy Solutions, Inc., by the nation’s largest feed manufacturer, Cargill have been dropped by a federal court jury.
Cargill sought $10.2 million in damages against three former employees who left the company to form their own dairy nutrition and management consulting business. The claims sought by Cargill included misappropriation of trade secrets, breach of contract, and fraud, all of which were litigated during a three week trial in the United States District Court before the honorable Lawrence J. O’ Neill.
Within less than one day of deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous verdict not only rejecting every claim brought by Cargill, but the jury also announced, through their verdict, that Cargill’s claims against these departing employees was “objectively specious” which was defined by the Court as completely lacking in any evidentiary support.
This finding was made after 18 months of litigation brought by Cargill through two law firms Mayer Brown of Washington DC and Fish & Richardson of Redwood City, California. During the course of the trial, Cargill employed a staff of attorneys and assistants to present their case in Fresno, California. Cargill’s home office is located in Minneapolis, MN.
The departing employees were Matt Budine, Brian Sundberg, and Luciana Jonkman who left the company in early 2007. The evidence was clear that they had diligently served Cargill throughout their years of Cargill employment and remained loyal to the company until the date of their resignation, to form their own company, Progressive Dairy Solutions, Inc. They were represented by Mick Marderosian, Brett Runyon, and Heather Cohen of Marderosian Runyon Cercone Lehman & Armo in Fresno, California and Ricardo Echeverria of Shernoff Bidart Darras and Echeverria of Claremont, California. The defense focused on the fact that Cargill had no evidence that any trade secrets were acquired or used by any of the defendants and that the real motive behind Cargill’s efforts was to unfairly compete and crush the new and much smaller upstart company.
Progressive Dairy Solutions, Inc. is a dairy nutrition and management consulting firm. They do not manufacture feed but simply consult with dairies to provide innovative management solutions for each dairy operation. The consulting firm not only focuses on the highly important dairy nutrition elements of a dairy, they assist in management and employee training in each critical segment of the dairy operation.