From: Aventis ICON Class Action

Introduction
         Lawyers represented a class of crawfish farmers in Louisiana who suffered tremendous losses in their pond-grown crawfish crops, allegedly as the result of the use of ICON, a pesticide manufactured by Aventis CropSciences USA, LLP ("Aventis"). The pesticide was used to combat the rice water weevil. Plaintiffs allege, however, that ICON is toxic to crawfish and caused the decline in the crawfish crop.
Relationship Between Rice and Crawfish Farming
          Over 1,500 crawfish farmers operate in Louisiana, many of whom also farm rice in the same ponds or in close proximity to crawfish ponds. The rotation patterns for the two crops vary, but water that has been used in a rice field, called tailwater, is sometimes used to irrigate crawfish ponds. After planting rice, tailwater is also often discharged into surrounding ditches and canals, which downstream crawfish farmers may retrieve and introduce to their ponds.
Plaintiffs' Allegations
          In 1999, Aventis introduced ICON into the Louisiana market without, plaintiffs assert, adequate testing and without considering how ICON would interact with the rice/crawfish rotation system used in Louisiana. ICON is applied to rice seeds by seed distributors, some of whom are also named as Defendants. The farmers filed suit against the manufacturers and sellers of the pesticide ICON (active ingredient fipronil) for losses in their pond-grown crawfish crops allegedly caused by the pesticide.
Case Status
          On May 17, 2004, Judge James T. Genovese, of the 27th Judicial District Court, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, granted final approval to a $45 million settlement of the class action lawsuit. The settlement was reached after the parties had presented nearly a month's worth of evidence at trial, and were on the verge of making closing arguments to the jury...
          In entering into the settlement, defendants admitted no liability for the damages allegedly suffered by class members.
Reference: Louisiana Crawfish Crop Losses and Aventis ICON Class Action

December 3, 1999

(4 pages)

Original Petition for Damages
Craig West, Troy West and W.B. Farms, Inc. VERSUS
G & H Seed Co. and RHONE-POULENC AG COMPANY, INC.

Civil Docket No. 99-C-4984-A
17th Judicial District Court, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

On or about March 19, 1999, rice and crawfish farmers purchased rice seed from G & H Seed in Eunice, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. The seed was sprayed with a chemical identified as Fipronil/Icon by G & H Seed Copany at its business in Eunice, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. The Fipronil/Icon sprayed rice seed was then transported to a crop duster, and applied onto rice/crawfish fields owned by plaintiffs. The resulting effect of applying the Fipronil/Icon sprayed rice onto the rice/crawfish fields, caused a complete crawfish mortality, resulting in damages to plaintiffs' 1999 Spring crawfish crop, as well as their 1999 - 2000 crop.

January 25, 2000

(19 pages)

Civil Docket No. 99-C-4984-A

17th Judicial District Court, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

CLASS ACTION PETITION.
By amending, supplementing and restating the entire Petition for Damages, including the caption, so as to indicate the claim is being brought as a class action by Plaintiffs, individually and as representatives of all persons and/or entities similarly situated, and against defendants and a class of defendants, all of whom are similarly situated...

Defendant Rhone negligently tested, formulated and manufactured Icon, a defective product which caused harm to the Plaintiffs, failed to properly ensure that the Defendant Class did not cause damage to crawfish through the use of Icon, and were negligent in the manufacturing and distribution of Icon... Rhone manufactures Icon for use as a pesticide. Rhone negligently manufactured and tested Icon prior to putting it on the market. Rhone knew or should have known that Icon would be used in rice fields in Louisiana which also harvested crawfish, but failed to conduct any tests which proved the safety of Icon on Louisiana's crawfish crop. In fact, although Icon has been used for approximately one year, Rhone is now expected to warn the Plaintiffs that Icon is dangerous and lethal to crawfish.

Undated

(7 pages)

Second Amended and Supplemental Petition for Damages

Civil Docket No. 99-C-4984-A

17th Judicial District Court, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

• During the 1998 to 1999 crop year, Don H. Alleman owned and farmed crawfish under the corporte name of Quaity Aquaculture, Inc. Don H. Alleman and Quality Aquaculture, Inc. sustained a monumental loss of more than 75,000 pounds of crawfish during that crop year as a direct result of tailwater containing Icon and/or any or all of its derivatives in the water or sediment flooding Don H. Alleman and Quality Aquaculture, Inc.'s crawfish acreage.
• During the 1999 to 2000 crop year, Don H. Alleman and Anthony J. Godeaux were farming under the corporate name of Quality Crawfish, L.L.C. ... As a direct result of farming crawfish in rice acreage planted or treated with Icon-coated rice seed, Don H. Alleman, Anthony J. Godeaux and Quality Crawfish, L.L.C.'s almost 800 acres produced virtually no crawfish.
• Jason J. Robin and Crawfish Wholesalers, Inc. crawfish farmed approximately 260 acres. During the 1999-2000 crop year, approximately 200 acres of this land were planted with Icon-coated rice seed and seeded with crawfish. The remaining 60 acres with crawfish received an overspray of aerial appliction of Icon-coated rice seed. Crawfish mortality was widespread on all of the acreage and virtually no crawfish have been harvested from the entire 260 acres.
• In the 1998-1999 crawfish season, Ben Gunniss, d/b/a Gunniss Pond Management farmed approximately 150 acres of crawfish which sustained high mortality as a direct result of tailwater containing Icon and/or its dervatives in the water or sediment flooding his ponds.
• In the 1999-2000 crawfish season, Ben Gunniss, d/b/a Gunniss Pond Management farmed approximately 278 acres of crawfish in fields planted with Icon-coated rice seed. Crawfish mortality was widespread and virtually no crawfish have been harvested from the entire 278 acres.

Written Reasons for Judgment

Judge James T. Genovese

27th Judicial District Court, Parish of St. Landry, Louisiana.

State of Louisiana
Court of Appeal, Third Circuit - 01-1453

Affirmed in Part, Reversed in Part, and Remanded for Trial on the Merits.

Court composed of JUDGES:
Ulysses Gene Thibodeaux, Henry I. Yelverton, and Billie Colombaro Woodland

Appeal from the 27th Judicial District Court
No. 99-C-4984-A

This Court of Appeal upheld the Class Action suit by documenting previous legal cases with responses to the defendants ...

Excerpt: At this procedural stage of the suit, we are concerned only with the propriety of the certification ... In July 1998, the [US EPA] authorized Aventis to market the insecticide, and it was extensively introduced into the Louisiana market in 1999. The chemical was sold in liquid form to send distributors/applicators who, pursuant to contracts with Aventis, applied ICON to rice seed prior to planting. The purpose of the chemical treatment was to combat the rice water weevil. In Louisiana, rice and crawfish are often conjunctively farmed, either in the same pond or in close proximity to one another. The rotaation patterns for the two crops vary, but water that has been used in a rice field ("tailwater") is sometimes employed to irrigate crawfish ponds. After planting, tailwater might also be dischared into surrounding ditches and canals, and a downstream crawfish farmer may retrieve this tailwater and introduce it into his pond. Crawfish are not always grown in rice fields. The state-wide crawfish harvest declined by millions of pounds from 1999 to 2000. Plaintiffs allege that the use of ICON-treated rice seed in certain ponds had a devastating efffect on co-cultured crawfish harvests in 1999 and 2000. Some farmers have experienced total loss of their crawfish crop; others have experienced a commercially damaging decline.

Plaintiffs allege that once reports began to mount regarding ICON's ill effects on the crawfish industry, Aventis conducted field tests and concluded that any increase in crawfish mortality resulted either from a misapplication of ICON, was unrelated to ICON, or was attributable to the severe 1998 drought. Plaintiffs also allege that the Department of Agriculture only tested for the presence of Fipronil, the acive ingredient in ICON. Fipronil was found in extremely low levels and, therefore, could not be conclusively linked to crawfish mortality. Plaintiffs argue, however, that these low levels resut from the ingredient's tendency to rapidly break down into derivatives which bind to soil particles and do not dissolve in water.

Website of
Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP

for the Plaintiffs

On August 28, 2002, the Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court's class certification of a class, defined by the following three subclasses:

Subclass 1: All persons or legal entities from January of 1999 who purchased ICON-treated seed for the planting of rice or for crawfish operations in the State of Louisiana and who allege financial loss and damages as a result of said crop's exposure to ICON;
Subclass 2: All persons or legal entities from January of 1999 who farm crawfish in the State of Louisiana and who allege financial loss and damages to their respective crawfish crop as a result of said crop's exposure to ICON;
Subclass 3: All persons or legal entities from January of 1999 who participated in a sharecropping arrangement for the farming of crawfish in the State of Louisiana and who allege financial loss and damages as a result of its crawfish farmers' crop exposure to ICON.

Icon rice seed treatment to be pulled from market

... After 2004, no more Icon will be manufactured for rice. Any remaining supplies can be utilized through 2006 ... Last year, about 30 percent of Arkansas' rice acres (close to 500,000 acres) had Icon on it ...

March 29, 2004

(66 pages)

Excerpts:
1.2 The term "Bayer CropScience" shall mean and refer to Bayer CropScience LP, formerly known as Aventis CropScience USA LP, formerly known as Rhone-Poulenc Ag Company, Inc.

1.11 The term "Compromising Parties" or "Compromising Party" shall mean and refer to

(a) G & H Seed Company, Inc.,
(b) Bayer CropScience,
(c) Crowley Grain Drier, Inc.,
(d) Mamou Rice Drier and Warehouse, Incorporated, and
(e) Nolan J. Guillot, Inc.

• See Reference 1 below for more excerpts
• See Reference 2 below for the names of the many attorneys and their clients

March 29, 2004

(6 pages)

Order of Preliminary Approval of Proposed Settlement

Signed by Judge James T. Genovese

27th Judicial District Court, Parish of St. Landry, Louisiana.

On or soon after

March 29, 2004

(1 page)

Excerpts from Notice that appeared in the print media:

WHO'S INCLUDED? Generally, the Class includes people and legal entities in Louisiana who, since January 1999, claim their crawfish crops were damaged by exposure to ICON, and who either:
1) bought ICON-treated seed for rice farming;
2) farmed crawfish, including those who did not buy rice seed themselves; or
3) participated in a crawfish farming sharecropping arrangement.
Note that you are included if you claim that water from a rice field—“tailwater”—caused you crawfish losses down-stream. Also, you’re included if you leased your land to a crawfish farmer who had a loss. The detailed notice says exactly who is included.
WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE?
A $45 million fund will be established by the succes-sors to ICON’s maker Rhone-Poulenc Ag Co., Inc., and their insurer, to be overseen by an independent “Special Master.” A Settlement Agreement, available at the website or by calling toll free, describes all of the details about the proposed settlement. The Court did not decide that the defendants did anything wrong, but they agreed
to resolve the case and give benefits to the Class. The settlement does not mean they admit any wrongdoing.to. If the settlement is approved, all defendants, and other entities named in the detailed notice, will be released from all liability for the claims in the case— including claims for contaminated land—and you won’t be able to sue them, or continue to sue them, for those claims. The Settlement Agreement and detailed notice
explain this fully.
For more information on the case (West, et al v. G&H Seed Co. and Rhone-Poulenc Ag Co., Inc., et al, No. 99- C-4984-A), call toll free, visit the website, or write to Patrick C. Morrow, Attn: Crawfish Case, Morrow & Morrow, P.O. Drawer 1787, Opelousas, LA 70571. 1-866-942-3634
www.lacrawfishcase.com

May 27, 2004

(8 pages)

Final Order and Judgment

Signed by Judge James T. Genovese

27th Judicial District Court, Parish of St. Landry, Louisiana.

(17) Except as otherwise provided in the Settlement Agreement, and and all persons and entities, excluding the Opt-Out Parties, are hereby finally and permanently barred and enjoined from instituting, maintaining, and/or prosecuting against the Released Parties any cause of action Related to the Episode (including, without limitation, all caused of ction based on claims of the Class as set forth in the Class Action);

(20) Except as otherwise provided in the Settlement Agreement, each member of the Class is hereby required to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless the Released Parties from and against any and all past, present, or future claims, demands, suits, causes of action, rights of action, liabilities, liens, privileges, or judgments of any kind whatsoever by, on behalf of, through, or deriving solely from the claims of that member of the Class, or by, on behalf of , through, or deriving from his, her, or its heirs, executors, representaties, attorneys or former attorneys, successors, employers, insurers, employers insurers, health insurers, health care providers, assignees, subrogees, predecessors in interest, successors in interest, beneficiaries or survivors, arising out of or in any way Related to the Episode, all as more fully set forth in the Settlement Agreement.

(29) Neither this Final Order and Judgment nor the Settlement Agreement (nor any other document referred to herein, nor any action taken to carry out this Final Order and Judgment) may be construced as, or may be used as an admission or concession by or against the Compromising Parties, the Related Parties, and/or the Settling Insurer of the validity of any claim or any actual or potential fault, wrongdoing or liability whatsoever...

July 16, 2004

(2 pages)

Icon Litigation Group

Client Newsletter

Settlement a boon for crawfish farmers

Potentially a thousand or more South Louisiana crawfish farmers are in line to share in $24 million of the $45 million Icon pesticide settlement ...

NBC TV 7 KPLC

Lake Charles, Louisiana

Settlement for LA Crawfish Farmers

... About $21 million in the settlement was eaten up in court costs, administrative and lawyer fees ...

Crawfish farmers need to prove losses to reap settlement money

Armed with records showing crop losses, crawfish farmers this week will start the process of staking their claims to 24 (m) million dollars won in a legal settlement with the manufacturer of a pesticide linked to crop losses ... Production records, sales records, tax returns and expense accounts will be among the documents farmers will bring to show damage ...

Reference 1.

1.15 The term "Episode" shall mean and refer to and include each and every event, circumstance, and/or stituation upon which allegations have been made or could have been made against the Compromising Parties, the Related Parties, and/or the Settling Insurer for recovery of economic, property and/or other damages or other relief or remedy, arising out of, related to or connected in any way to the Product. Without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the term "Episode" also shall mean and include any and all claims arising out of, related to or conected in any way to the invention, design, patenting, development, registration with the EPA, testing and/or alleged failure to test prior to marketing (including but not limited to claims for so called negligent testing), manufacture, sale, distribution, use, application, misapplication, and/or past or future application, misapplication, and/or presence of the Product anywhere within the State of Louisiana including within, upon, over or under the lands or waters, both surface or subsurface, of the State of Louisiana at any time commencing January 1, 1999. Also without limiting the generality of the foregoing, the term "Episode" shall include any other consequence of the presence of the Product and/or other substances capable of causing injury or damage and/or derivatives and/or constituents thereof and/or other substances in such soil and/or groundwater and the conduct of the Compromising Parties, the Related Parties, and/or the Settling Insurer with respect thereto.

1.24 The term "Product" shall mean and refer to and include the following:

(1) ICON FS, manufactured by Bayer CropScience and labeled for use by the EPA as a rice seed treatment for control of rice water weevils and other pestes which threaten the rice crop in Louisiana;
(2) fipronil, which is the active ingredient in ICON FS;
(3) any and all of the metabolites and/or degradate products of ICON FS and/or fipronil, whether known or unknown;
(3) rice seed which was at any time coated and/or treated with ICON FS by any person, including any and all rice seed which, although not treated with ICON FS, nevertheless, through any means whatsoever, contained traces of ICON FS, fipronil, any and all of the metabolites and/or degradate products of ICON FS and/or fipronil, whether known or unknown.

1.25 The term "Related Parties" shall mean and refer to, individually and collectively,

(i) any and all of the past, present, and future employees, officers, shareholders, partners, members, directors managers, representatives, adjusters, attorneys, agents, insurers, consultants, and contractors of the Compromising Parties,

(ii) any and all present or former parent or subsidiary companies or corporations, affiliated companies or corporations as defined in 14 U.S.C. 80(a)-1, brother or sister corporations (that is, all such entities that share a common parent with a Compromising Part), predecessors in interest, and successors in interest of the Compromising Parties, and all of their past, present, and future eployees, officers, shaeholders, partners, members, directors, managers, representative, adjustors, consultants, insurers, attorneys, agents, and contractors, and

(iii) any other person, firm, partnership, joint venture, corporation, limited liability company, or entity for which the Compromising Parties may be liable as a result of the Episode. The term "Related Parties" shall include, without limitation, Aventis, S.A., the Settling Insurer Related Parties, Agriliance, Agro Distribution - Jones, Alice Signey Dryer, Angelina Grain, B&S Seed Co., Inc., BU Growers, LTD, Cache River Valley Seed, LLC, Cullum Seeds, LLC, Devillier Seed Inc., Dulaney Seed, Inc., Eagle Seed Company, East Arkansas Seeds, Inc., Erwin Keith, Inc., Farelly Lake-Rollison Seed Co., Fuller Seed & Supply, Garrett Seed Rice LTD., Hornbeck Seed Co. Inc., Jimmy Sanders, Inc., Lawhon Farm Services, Inc., Pemble Seed, Inc., Rauser, Raymond Franz Interest, Inc., Rice Belt Warehouse, Inc., Stratton Seed Company, LLC, Tanner Seed Col., LLC, Thornwell Warehouse, United Agri Products, (handwritten: Stuttgart Seed Co., Inc., Terral Seed, Inc., Texas Rice Improvement Association, Woodlands Plantation Seed, Petrous Mildwin Growers, Delta Farms) and Winco AgriProducts of TX. The rights of Compromising Parties under this Agreement also extend to the Related Parties.

1.32 The term "Settling Insurer" shall mean and refer to Allianz Global Risks US Insurance Company.

Vance R. Andrus
Gano Lemoine