Farm Employees and Workers' Compensation
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A recent Super Bowl ad for Ram Trucks reintroduced football fans to the “So God Made a Farmer” speech delivered by Paul Harvey in 1978. Vibrant farm scenes run through the ad as Harvey’s voiceover describes the multiple tasks farmers are called to fulfill. As Harvey put it, God needed “[s]omebody to seed, weed, feed, breed and rake and disc and plow and plant and tie the fleece and strain the milk . . . . So God made a farmer.”
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Court Rules on Mineral Lapse Act
By Sara MacLaughlin
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The Indiana Court of Appeals recently looked at the Indiana Mineral Lapse Act. In Bond v. Templeton Coal Company, Inc., the court found that the act does apply retroactively, but only for the twenty-year period immediately preceding the act’s 1971 effective date. The Bonds, the surface owners, argued that the interest of the mineral owner, Templeton, lapsed because Templeton did not use its mineral interests for twenty years. The act held that if an interest in coal, oil and gas and other minerals was unused for a period of twenty years, the interest is extinguished and the ownership returns to the owner from which the mineral interests were carved. The Bonds alleged that Templeton’s mineral interests lapsed because Templeton did not use such interests for a 35-year period, between 1929 and 1964. In 1964, Templeton started paying taxes on its interest, which is a use according to the act. The court found that the language of the act was ambiguous as to whether it applied retroactively beyond 20 years. Since the language was ambiguous, the court declined to extend the retroactive affect beyond the 20 years preceding the act.
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US Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Monsanto
By Justin Schneider
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We previously reported on the lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court pitting an Indiana farmer, Vernon Bowman, against Monsanto. The case regarded the legality of a farmer purchasing soybean seed from a grain elevator, planting the seed, spraying it with Roundup, then harvesting the seed for sale and replanting. The Supreme Court ruled that the practice used by the farmer violated the patent protection that Monsanto had in the Roundup Ready technology. The court based its decision upon the right of a developer of technology to protect its investment from unauthorized and uncompensated reproduction during the time the patent protection is in effect.
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Over the next year, we will explore the various aspects of labor and employment law, but we hope to expand the scope over time.
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The IALF is a charitable organization established by Indiana Farm Bureau, Inc., to promote better understanding of legal issues facing the agricultural community.
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