U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin in Chicago granted the Department of Justice’s request to stay discovery in a high-profile case that alleges collusion in the poultry industry. Durkin halted discovery in the case for three months, half the time DOJ had requested to protect its own grand jury investigation of the poultry sector.
“The government’s now in the case,” Durkin said at a Thursday hearing, according to a report from Reuters.
Durkin’s order means that the ongoing discovery in a case brought by Maplevale Farms, including subpoenas and depositions from employees of the poultry companies in question, will be temporarily stopped. The suit, brought by Maplevale in 2016, alleges that the top poultry companies — among them Tyson Foods, Perdue, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Sanderson Farms — colluded to artificially raise prices for broiler chickens between 2008 and 2016.
At the center of the case is a data-sharing service called Agri Stats, which generates lengthy daily reports on the U.S. chicken sector for poultry companies that subscribe to its services. The case has been joined by some of the nation’s largest food retailers and distributors, including Walmart, Sysco, U.S. Foods, Kroger, and Albertsons.
Plaintiffs in the case resisted the DOJ’s proposal for a six-month stay, arguing that “this case was within four months of the close of fact discovery” and noting that the discovery process so far has generated more than 100 depositions and 13 million documents, according to a court document prepared by the consumer plaintiffs. The stay will “[bring] the fevered pace of this discovery to a complete halt,” the document reads.
Reuters reports that Durkin said he would need a “very compelling” reason to extend the stay beyond three months.
FERN broke the news Monday that the DOJ had requested a stay of discovery in the Maplevale case due to its own ongoing grand jury investigation. Experts told FERN that the intervention could mean the DOJ is anticipating bringing criminal charges against the poultry companies or their executives. Soon after the news spread, share prices for Tyson, Pilgrim’s Pride, and Sanderson dropped.
Tyson and other named poultry companies have denied the allegations to FERN and other outlets.