Perfectly Fresh Farms, Inc. v. United States Department of Agriculture

OPINION

BERZON, Circuit Judge:

In 2001, two entrepreneurs founded Perfectly Fresh Marketing, Inc., a wholesale produce company, and soon thereafter founded three subsidiary companies to handle different aspects of the business. Although things started out well, before long the firms found themselves in financial straits, and declared bankruptcy before the legal proceedings that are the subject of this appeal began.

Those proceedings involve a complex, rarely litigated federal statute, the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (“PACA” or “the Act”), 7 U.S.C. § 499a et seq., designed in part to…