Robotic Milker Failure: Lawsuit Filed Against Lely North America, Inc.
Note: This post was originally published on March 20, 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
On September 1, 2023, the Court granted final approval of a nationwide settlement in the United States with Lely in litigation related to its robotic milking system, the Lely Astronaut A4 (“A4”).
Click here for more information on the historic settlement.
Original post, published March 20, 2022:
Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP, Cullenberg & Tensen PLLC, and Perrone Law PLLC filed a class-action lawsuit against Lely North America, Inc. on behalf of dairy farmers who purchased and were dissatisfied with the Lely Astronaut A4 automatic milking system.
Originally filed in February 2020, the case alleges, among other defects and problems, that the systems fail to adequately clean and dry each teat before the start of the milking process, routinely miss quarters due to teat cup attachment failures, cause bacteria-contaminated milk droplets, slugs of milk and other contaminants to impact against the teat ends and enter the teat canal due to vacuum drops and spikes caused by inadequate vacuum capacity and reserve, and use defective and inadequate methods to detect mastitis and divert abnormal milk, all of which adversely affects cow health, milk production and milk quality, while causing a host of other long-term issues.
The firms’ secured two favorable decisions in litigation against Lely, Kruger v. Lely North America, Inc., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, including:
- On December 14, 2020, Judge Nancy E. Brasel denied a motion to dismiss filed by Lely for lack of personal jurisdiction concerning Lely International entities, and ordered limited jurisdictional discovery; and
- On February 10, 2021, the judge addressed a motion brought by Lely requesting the Court dismiss the case for failure to state a claim, ruling in favor of the farmers on four claims – breaches of express and implied warranties, negligence, strict liability, and fraudulent concealment.
The full Order issued in December is available here, and February’s decision is available here.
These two Orders follow the firms’ earlier success securing a denial of a motion to dismiss in similar litigation against DeLaval Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. In January 2020, Judge Stephen R. Bough denied a trio of motions requesting to prematurely end a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of dairy farmers who had purchased DeLaval’s voluntary milking system (“VMS”) robots. The lawsuit raises the similar allegations that the robots were defective and did not perform as represented and advertised.
Our firm is also investigating potential cases against Galaxy and GEA related to the robotic milking systems they sold in the United States that had operational problems or failed to perform as advertised. If you are a dairy farmer who purchased the VMS system from DeLaval, the Astronaut A4 from Lely, or a robotic milking system from GEA or Galaxy we would like to hear your story and discuss your legal options. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation by calling 888-816-2107 or visiting roboticmilkerfailure.com.
