Court Upholds Mandatory Grape Rootstock Assessment Against Seller.

The plaintiff sells grapevine rootstock and challenged the mandatory assessments it must pay to the California Rootstock Improvement Commission to help fund research for pest-resistant and drought-resistant rootstock.  The plaintiff challenged the mandatory assessment as an unconstitutional exercise of the state's police power that violated the plaintiff's liberty interests and due process rights under the U.S. and California constitutions.  The plaintiff had the ability to conduct its own research for it own competitive advantage and claimed it had a right to refuse to help fund research that benefits its competitors and the industry as a whole.  The trial court upheld the mandatory assessment and the appellate court agreed.  The appellate court determined that the Commission was properly created for the public benefit and that a university researcher at UC Davis did not dupe the legislature and the grape rootstock industry into creating the Commission for the researcher's benefit.  The court found that the evidence did not support the plaintiff's conspiracy claims and that the law creating the Commission and the assessment was constitutionally valid.  Duarte Nursery, Inc. v. California Grape Rootstock Improvement Commission, et al., No. C071578, 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 735 (Cal. Ct. App. Aug. 25, 2015).