Eat Just and its cultivated meat subsidiary GOOD Meat have reached an agreement in principle to settle their legal dispute* with bioreactor supplier ABEC, according to court documents, although the matter has not yet reached a final resolution.
In a letter to Judge Wendy Beetlestone dated February 6, attorneys for both parties explained that they “have engaged in serious settlement negotiations over the past few months and have reached an agreement in principle regarding the framework for a settlement agreement and the material terms.”
However, “due to the complex nature of the claims, defenses, and counterclaims,” they added, “the parties require additional time to draft a binding agreement.”
In an order filed on February 7, Judge Beetlestone agreed to their request for the court to appoint a magistrate judge as settlement master to facilitate a final resolution, but rejected their request for a 30-day stay on the litigation and all case deadlines.
Neither party has responded to a request for comment from AgFunderNews.
What is the case about?
The legal dispute began in March 2023 when ABEC filed a lawsuit accusing GOOD Meat of breach of contract by failing to pay its bills on time.
According to ABEC, GOOD Meat owed $62,649,231.79 for work ABEC had already completed. Eat Just, in turn, claimed that ABEC had breached the terms of their contract.
ABEC, which had been working with GOOD Meat on pilot cultivated chicken facilities in California and Singapore, signed an agreement with the startup in August 2021. Under the seven-year deal, ABEC would design, manufacture, install and commission multiple 250,000-liter vessels— “the largest known bioreactors for avian and mammalian cell culture”—for a large-scale facility in the US.
Given “financing hurdles,” by November 2022, Eat Just/GOOD Meat “recommended the evaluation of a phased approach, creating five 125,000-L bioreactors instead of four 250,000-L bioreactors,” and the two started corresponding over amendments to their agreement.
By March 2023, ABEC said it had had no choice but to take legal action over unpaid bills. Eat Just/GOOD Meat responded by filing a series of counterclaims, arguing that the parties never formally ratified amendments to their original agreement, and that ABEC had simply proceeded as if they had.
Speaking to AgFunderNews last year, Eat Just founder and CEO Josh Tetrick said he was “not attempting to raise money for a large-scale cultivated meat facility right now” and was instead focusing on process development at the firm’s plant in Alameda, California, and working on new cell lines he claimed would enable more efficient large-scale production.
*The case is ABEC, Inc. v. Eat Just, Inc. et al., No. 5:23-cv-01091
