Sysco Loses Bid to Sub in Burford Capital in Antitrust Cases

A Burford Capital Ltd. affiliate can’t take over as plaintiff in two pork and beef price-fixing lawsuits it funded for food distributor Sysco Corp., a federal court said Friday.

The defendant producers—including Tyson Fresh Meats Inc. and JBS USA Food Co.—opposed the substitution, which was rejected by Magistrate Judge John F. Docherty of the US District Court for the District of Minnesota.

Burford provided Sysco $140 million to pursue the lawsuits, but they developed a dispute over Sysco’s attempt to settle with some defendants on terms Burford didn’t favor. They resolved the problem by engineering an assignment of Sysco’s antitrust claims to a “special purpose vehicle” established by Burford.

The transfer “has caused serious practical problems in this litigation, and will allow a financer with no interest in the litigation beyond maximizing profit on its investment to override decisions made by the party that actually brought suit,” Docherty said.

The cases are In re Pork Antitrust Litig., D. Minn., No. 18-cv-1776, 2/9/24 and In re Cattle and Beef Antitrust Litig., D. Minn., No. 22-md-3031, 2/9/24.