HempChain Farms LLC v. Sack

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER I. BACKGROUND Nicolas Guarino, along with several partners, owned and operated Plaintiff HempChain Farms, LLC and its parent company, Naturae LLC. See Dkt. No. 48, Defs’ Stmt. of Material Facts, at 4.^1,2 Plaintiff brokered seed sales for other farmers, meaning that it purchased seeds from various sources and resold them to other farmers. See id. at 6. Defendant Kenneth Sack owned and operated Defendants Organic Growers LLC and Defendant Eagle Springs Organic LLC, which were companies located in Silt, Colorado. See id. at 1. In 2019, Defendant Organic Growers grew, cultivated, and sold hemp and hemp-related products, including two varietals of hemp seed, called “BB1″ and “BB2.” See id. at

2, 10.³ As relevant here, Defendants’ BB2 hemp was a “hybrid plant” that was a crossbreed of “Cherry Mom” hemp and “Wu #5″ hemp. See id. at 11.⁴ Before selling their seeds, Defendants conducted several tests on them, including with respect to the total CBD content for plants grown from BB2 seeds and their potential active THC content; the BB2 seeds’ purity and viability, as estimated in the germination rate; and sex testing to determine the BB2 seeds’ female-to-male sex ratio. See id. at