Class action lawsuit shines light on institutional mistreatment of socially disadvantaged farmers
DiCello Levitt has one of the strongest and most successful agricultural biotechnology practices in the United States, with its attorney having recovered close to $2 billion for farmers and other landowners in several of the largest agricultural biotechnology class actions in history, and currently represents hundreds of claims of individuals, including farmers, suffering from Paraquat-caused Parkinson’s disease in the multidistrict litigation.
Proudly continuing its representation of American farmers, Diandra “Fu” Debrosse Zimmermann issued a statement to Law360 regarding the firm’s recent class action filing on behalf of four minority farmers, wherein they allege that the U.S. Government broke its contractual promises to them after they and thousands of other farmers had already invested heavily in their operations based on those promises, leaving some of them near financial ruin. The action also alleges that the U.S. Government broke another promise to minority farmers: To provide compensation for past discrimination that they suffered at the hands of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). DiCello Levitt serves as co-counsel in this important litigation with Ben Crump Law.
Fu stated that hundreds of billions of dollars — including $326 billion in real estate assets — have been stolen from Black farmers since Reconstruction. Adding to those losses during the coronavirus pandemic is “unacceptable,” she said. “The extension of the ARPA loans to these farmers was, in part, an attempt to address historic injustice,” she told Law360. “The U.S. government’s breaches of its contractual obligations here have had the opposite effect.” Our goal is to use the U.S. civil litigation system to right this demonstrable wrong.
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