Contact: Diane Henderson         303/850-3465        dhenderson@beefboard.org

       Montana Judge Dismisses Charters’ Challenge of Beef Checkoff

CENTENNIAL, COLO. (October 31, 2005) – A suit brought by Steve and Jeanne Charter challenging the constitutionality of the Beef Checkoff Program was dismissed on Oct. 21, 2005, as a result of a request by the plaintiffs. Defendants in the case include the USDA and a group of producers who intervened on behalf of the checkoff.

As a result of the dismissal, U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull’s prior order requiring the Charters to pay $417.79 in unpaid checkoff assessments and late fees to the Montana Beef Council was reinstated.

The Charter case originated as a compliance issue in 1998, when Montana ranchers Steve and Jeanne Charter refused to pay the mandated $1-per-head beef checkoff on the sale of their cattle. A USDA administrative law judge enforced the checkoff and assessed a civil penalty on the Charters for refusal to pay. Upon further review by the USDA’s judicial officer, at the request of the Charters, assessments of those penalties were upheld.

The Charters then appealed their case to the Federal District Court in Billings, where Judge Cebull ruled in favor of USDA, declaring the beef checkoff constitutional, but reversing the assessment of civil penalties. The Charters appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in California, where a ruling was held in abeyance while the U.S. Supreme Court considered a similar case brought by the Livestock Marketing Association (LMA), the Western Organization of Resource Councils, and three individuals.

Upon the Supreme Court ruling upholding the constitutionality of the checkoff program in the LMA case, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals remanded the Charter case back to Judge Cebull’s court in Billings.

With dismissal of the case, Beef Board Chairman Al Svajgr says it is important that all players in the beef industry work together to improve the marketplace for their products.

“It is now more critical than ever that we come together as an industry,” said Svajgr, a producer in Nebraska. “We would call on all cattlemen to join us in these efforts, with an eye toward increasing beef demand and long-term profitability for all segments of our industry.”