Defendants seek stay in pork price-fixing lawsuit

Agri Stats, Inc and three meat processors have requested a temporary halt in the multi-district pork price-fixing proceedings until the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit disposes of its petition for a writ of mandamus. According to the Department of Justice, mandamus is an extraordinary remedy, which is only used in exceptional circumstances of peculiar emergency or public importance.

On Oct. 17, Agri Stats, Clemens Food Group, Seaboard Foods and Smithfield Foods filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Eighth Circuit, asking the court to direct recusal and vacate the court’s Daubert and summary judgment orders. That petition remains pending.

Agri Stats and the pork processors state that due to the “significant issues the petition raises and its potential effect on the future course of this case,” the court should grant the stay until the Eighth Circuit disposes of the mandamus petition.

In their memorandum of support, the defendants note the lawsuit is a “closely watched case worth billions of dollars” and “not a single action, but rather a ‘sprawling multidistrict litigation’ brought by three classes and dozens of direct-action plaintiffs.” The defendants say “it warrants immediate and final resolution of the recusal issue before the parties incur substantial additional costs. A temporary stay pending disposition of the mandamus petition allows for precisely that.”