Posted December 18, 2013
Evrett Lundquist, an organic certification inspector
who was facing a $7.6 million lawsuit, won summary judgment and the judge recently
ordered the plaintiff to pay a portion of his attorneys’ fees.
The story begins when Lundquist, a part-time inspector
for farms seeking USDA organic certification notified the National Organic
Program (NOP) that he believed Paul Rosberg’s farm was not in compliance with
certification rules, according to Steven McFadden of Call of the Land, here. The NOP investigated and confirmed that
Rosberg’s operation failed to qualify for organic certification.
Lundquist “was acting on his own,” but felt “honor
bound by the International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA) Code of Ethics
to report suspected fraud.” Although
Lundquist’s complaint “should have been kept confidential” his identity was
mistakenly released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request.
Rosberg sued Lundquist and International Certification
Services, Inc., his employer, for $7.6 million in damages. Rosberg represented himself, pro se, as he has done in several legal
actions. Rosberg is currently
incarcerated in Nebraska after he was indicted
by a federal grand jury for selling misbranded meat to Omaha Public Schools. He was also arrested for hiring
two hit men to murder two witnesses in the meat trial.
While Lundquist acted “as a private citizen when he
initially reported the violations,” he incurred legal fees of over $43,000 and
asked for the NOP’s assistance in the case.
The NOP “declined to help with legal costs.”
Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Administrator
David Shipman, now retired, responded at the hearing: “We made a mistake … It
is really regrettable. I have looked at
this case a number of times and sat with legal counsel trying to figure out how
we can in some way help that individual…but the avenue to actually help in a
financial way, I have not found a path forward on that yet. It is an extremely regrettable situation, and
we are aware of it.”
A year earlier, the agency published
a statement on how complaints are handled.
For more information on the National Organic Program,
please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
