An Avocado Grower’s Lawsuit Says DNA Tests Showed Duarte Nursery Sold Him the Wrong Trees.

At the 2014 World Ag Expo in Tulare, Duarte Nursery’s booth displayed a sample avocado tree that was “healthy, leafy, and mature,” according to a lawsuit by Ventura County grower Richard Stevens. Stevens had already ordered 4,000 “Toro Canyon” trees from another nursery, Brokaw. The lawsuit says a Duarte representative told Stevens he would get trees like the one on display and that Duarte growers “will see increased uniformity, higher disease resistance, larger more vigorous trees, and increased yields,” a line it says also appeared on Duarte’s website. Stevens cut his Brokaw order to 3,000 and bought the other 1,000 from Duarte.

Why the rootstock matters

Toro Canyon is a rootstock: the root system onto which a fruit-bearing variety such as Hass is grafted. (Duarte Nursery described the order in court filings as Hass trees on Toro Canyon rootstock.) Growers choose rootstocks to resist diseases such as root rot and to tolerate conditions such as salty soil, according to the University of California’s pest management guidelines. The wrong rootstock can mean an orchard that never performs, and Stevens’ lawsuit says the problem was hidden: a defect that “could not have been discovered reasonably through inspection before the sale.”

What the lawsuit says happened

The Duarte trees arrived in June 2015. According to the lawsuit, many were small, with “thin single trunks with only a few leaves on top.” A Duarte field representative visited and said they were the same age as the Brokaw trees and would catch up. Eight months later, the lawsuit says, they were still “small and frail with few leaves and significantly less avocado fruit,” while the Brokaw trees planted at the same time were flourishing. On a second visit, the lawsuit says, the representative acknowledged that the trees were a year younger than he had first said.

An avocado expert noticed that shoots growing from the Duarte trees’ rootstock looked different from the Brokaw trees’. Stevens had both sets DNA tested. According to the lawsuit, the Brokaw trees were Toro Canyon; the Duarte trees were “an unknown hybrid-type variety” unsuited to his farm. The lawsuit says he told the nursery and got no response.

His June 2017 lawsuit says the nursery’s conduct cost him at least two years’ worth of avocados and money he had set aside for rejuvenating his farm. It accuses the nursery of breach of contract, breach of the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, intentional and negligent misrepresentation, and unfair competition.

The fight over where to hold the trial

Duarte Nursery moved the case to its home county. Its lawyers cited a clause on the back of its standard “Sales & Growing Agreement” requiring that disputes be heard in Stanislaus County, and John Duarte, then the company’s chief executive, signed a declaration supporting the move. Stevens’ lawyers said the copy the nursery filed did not bear Stevens’ signature and that his farm was nearly 300 miles from Stanislaus County. The nursery replied that Stevens had not denied signing and was relying on the same contract for his own claims. On Aug. 23, 2017, a Ventura County judge sent the case to Stanislaus County and ordered Stevens’ lawyers to pay the nursery’s lawyers $2,500 in sanctions. The same form contract, which also disclaims warranties and caps damages at the purchase price, later figured in a lemon grower’s lawsuit.

How it ended

In Stanislaus County, Stevens added the Duarte representative as a defendant. He and the nursery each denied every allegation. A February 2019 trial was postponed after the nursery’s lawyer told the court he had recently become aware of possible claims against a new party. On Jan. 22, 2020, about six weeks before a rescheduled March 3 trial, Stevens’ lawyers told the court the case had settled. It was dismissed with prejudice in March 2020, with each side paying its own costs and fees. The terms are not in the court file, and no court decided the claims.

Alexandra Duarte, a Republican, is running for California State Senate District 4 on the Nov. 3, 2026 ballot. She is married to former Rep. John Duarte, who has served as the nursery’s president.