University of California Sued Over Strawberry Breeding – Again
May 4, 2016 California Berry Cultivars, LLC (CBC), a strawberry breeding company, filed a lawsuit Monday against the Regents of the University of California (UC). The lawsuit lists claims against the UC for breach of contract, conversion, fiduciary duty, and the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, as well as unfair competition.
The filing, announced by CBC in a press release, comes just over a year after UC-Davis and the California Strawberry Commission settled and signed an agreement outlining the future for the public strawberry program at-UC Davis. That brought to a close legal disagreements dating back to 2013, when the commission sued the university. One year after that, the university countersued the commission.
Monday’s filing of the complaint represents the frustration of CBC members after what they say is “more than three years of unsuccessful discussions and negotiations revolving around the systematic demise of the world famous UC-Davis strawberry-breeding program.”
Two of the CBC members are Dr. Doug Shaw and Dr. Kirk Larson, the celebrated former UC strawberry breeders who for over 30 years have helped maintain California prominence through their inventions of successful, publicly available breeds of strawberry varieties.
In addition to Shaw and Larson, who have both retired from the UC-Davis Pomology Department and who are now working for CBC, additional CBC partners include California Giant Berry Farms, principals at Orange County Produce, LLC, International Semillas, Rod Koda, Daren Gee, and Lassen Canyon Nursery.
CBC members say they came together after it was apparent that UC-Davis officials had orchestrated a collapse of protocols and precedents in what should have been a well-conceived strategy of succession for the UC’s strawberry breeding program.
For reasons that the lawsuit hopes to discover, CBC says UC-Davis administrators have denied the breeders rights and access to their own inventions of strawberry plant breeding material. They also claim UC officials have misled the industry and CBC members into believing that the core collection of strawberry breeding materials have been safeguarded and properly maintained.
For more than three years, CBC says it has worked to re-invigorate the stalled strawberry-breeding program through efforts to obtain non-exclusive access to the core strawberry materials created by Shaw and Larson and now held by the UC.
The suit claims UC-Davis failed to establish a succession plan and the lack of continuity is creating hardships for all growers, large and small, who depend on improved strawberry varieties for their livelihoods.
CBC, which is comprised of veteran members of the California strawberry growing community, claims that the UC has damaged the commercial viability of its members, as well as the California strawberry industry by mismanaging one of the most prolific and successful public-private partnerships in U.S. Land Grant history.
The company concludes it seeks equitable and monetary relief for injuries that have been, and will continue to be, caused by what it says is the UC’s incompetence and unlawful conduct.
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