Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council v. AgBorn Genetics, LLC

534 S.W.3d 822
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 27, 2017
DocketWD 79901 CONS WD 79945
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 534 S.W.3d 822 (Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council v. AgBorn Genetics, LLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council v. AgBorn Genetics, LLC, 534 S.W.3d 822 (Mo. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

Anthony Rex Gabbert, Judge

Introduction

AgBorn Genetics, LLC. (AgBorn) appeals from the judgment ehteréd by the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, following a jury verdict in favor of Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council (Missouri Soybean) and Mid-America Research and Development Foundation (Mid-America Research) (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) on Count IX of Plaintiffs’’Amended Petition for unjust enrichment. AgBorn raises five points on appeal. AgBorn contends that: I) The trial court erred in granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and denying Ag-Born’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to Count VIII of the Amended Petition, because the undisputed material facts established that there was a méeting of the minds and an enforceable contract where Plaintiffs had received a schedule identifying licensed technology and royalty rates and subsequently accepted royalty payments from AgBorn; 2) The trial court erred in granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to -Count VII of the Amended Petition because .there was a genuine dispute as to material facts, in that a schedule was attached to the Master Commercialization Agreement and the Master Commercialization Agreement was intended to' grant AgBorn rights in the Licensed Technology for so long as the Plaintiffs’ retained those rights; 3) The trial court erred in granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to Count X1 of the Amended Petition, because Missouri implies a standard of reasonableness when setting a price is impracticable at the time the contract is executed, and there was evidence that • doing so was impracticable at the [826]*826time the SA was executed; 4) The trial court abused its discretion in denying Ag-Born’s Motion for Leave to File a Counterclaim because -leave to amend is to be freely granted and the factual basis of the Counterclaim was only recently discovered and the , trial court had erroneously entered summary judgment against AgBorn, and; 5) The trial court abused its discretion in entering sanctions against AgBorn because Plaintiffs, could not have been prejudiced by incurring attorney fees for third-party discovery when the third-parties were in possession of documents that were not in AgBorris possession.

Plaintiffs raise one point on cross-appeal. Plaintiffs-contend that the trial court erred in partially denying summary judgment to Plaintiffs on Count VIII arguing that the Master Commercialization Agreement was unenforceable since its inception. We affirm.

Factual Background

This case involves two written instruments concerning the commercialization of certain technologies related to soybean production. Missouri Soybean is a not-for-profit organization representing Missouri soybean farmers; Mid-America Research is a not-for-profit, organization which is affiliated with Missouri Soybean and. supports research related to soybean production and use. AgBorn is in the business of selling soybean. In June of 2008, Plaintiffs and AgBorn signed a document; titled “Master Commercialization Agreement.”2 This document states that Plaintiffs had contracted for limited exclusive technology licenses, commercialization rights, and access to trade secrets, and -that Plaintiffs were giving AgBorn an exclusive subli-cense for the development, manufacture, use, distribution, marketing, and sale of the technologies. In exchange, AgBorn was to use reasonable efforts to promote the sale of the licensed technology and was to pay Missouri Soybean a royalty on the collected gross sales of all products or methods covered by the licensed technology-

On December 30, 2011, Missouri Soybean and AgBorn (Mid-America Research was not a party) signed a document titled “Sublicense Agreement.”3 This document provides that the University of Missouri and the United States Department of Agriculture jointly owned inventions regarding the development of High Oleic Acid Soybeans and that the University of Missouri had an exclusive worldwide license for those inventions, with the right to grant sublicenses to qualified commercial partners. Pursuant to that right, the University of Missouri exclusively sublicensed to Missouri Soybean all the rights granted to the university. The Sublicense Agreement provides that Missouri Soybean was subli-censing to AgBorn all rights it had been granted by the university due to AgBom’s willingness “to invest capital for the further development and testing of the inventions to bring them to commercial use for the benefit of potential users at the earliest practical date.” In exchange for the exclusive sublicense, AgBorn was to pay Missouri Soybean a percentage of collected gross sales. A similar Sublicense Agreement was signed on August 1," 2013, and [827]*827purported to be effective the same date as the prior Sublicense Agreement.4

On May 23, 2014, Plaintiffs filed á petition against AgBorn. Plaintiffs filed an amended petition on September 11, 2014.5 As relevant to AgBorn’s claims on appeal, and set forth herein in the order raised by AgBorn, Plaintiffs alleged in Count VIII of the Amended ■ Petition • that ■ the Master Commercialization Agreement was unenforceable because it failed to incorporate two material terms of the purported agreement, the identity of the licensed properties and the royalty rates payable to Missouri Soybean, resulting in there never being a meeting of the minds on all essential terms. Plaintiffs alleged in Count VII of the Amended Petition that the Master Commercialization Agreement was terminable at will for having no definite duration or termination provision. Plaintiffs’ Amended Petition alleged in Count X that the Sublicense Agreement was unenforceable because it failed to incorporate the royalty rates payable to Missouri Soybean and, consequently, there was no meeting of the minds regarding all essential terms of the Sublicense Agreement.

On February 12, 2017, Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on Counts VII, VIII, and X of the Amended Petition. That same date, AgBorn filed a Motion for Partial Summary Judgment as to Count VIII, On May 10, 2016, AgBorn filed a motion for leave to file a counterclaim. On May 20, 2016, the trial court entered a Judgment/Order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion, denying AgBorn’s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment, and denying AgBorn’s request to amend its answer to include a counterclaim. An Amended Judgment and Order was entered on June 6, 2016,. which was nearly identical to the court’s, previous order but clarified that the court was denying any requests to make its summary judgment rulings retroactive in nature. On June 8, 2016, the court granted in part and denied in part.Plaintiffs’ motion for sanctions against AgBprn; the court sanctioned AgBorn $59,167.61 which represented attorneys’ fees incurred by Plaintiffs due to AgBorn’s discovery abuses. A jury trial was then conducted solely on Plaintiffs’ unjust enrichment claim in Count IX which alleged that Ag-Born had accepted and retained the benefit of being granted the right to commercialize the intellectual property belonging to Plaintiffs and had failed to make royalty payments or otherwise fairly compensate Plaintiffs. Trial was held from June 13, 2016, through. June 15, 2016. The jury returned a verdict in Plaintiffs’ favor in the amount of $602,945,00. On July 27, 2016, an Amended Judgment responding tp Plaintiffs’ Motion for Interest was issued. AgBorn appeals and Plaintiffs cross-appeal.

AgBorn’s Point I

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Bluebook (online)
534 S.W.3d 822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/missouri-soybean-merchandising-council-v-agborn-genetics-llc-moctapp-2017.