Corteva faces 15-state suit over Vylor split as court freezes asset moves

A federal judge barred Corteva and the newly separated Vylor from unusual asset sales or shareholder payouts, then stayed the order pending appeal

Corteva is being sued by 15 states and one sovereign entity over its separation into Corteva and Vylor, a split completed on October 1, 2026. The states allege fraud in how the structure was carried out.

On October 9, 2026, the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana granted a temporary restraining order against Corteva, EIDP and the separated entities. It barred them from disposing of assets outside the ordinary course of business and from paying dividends or buying back stock. The court stayed that order the next day, October 10, pending an emergency motion before the Seventh Circuit, after Corteva said it did not intend to pay dividends or repurchase shares while the motion is pending. The company says it will keep contesting the litigation.

The order is the first time a court has acted directly on the states' fraud claims rather than simply having them on file, reaching into the asset transfers and shareholder payouts the separation was designed to complete. Its stay came only after Corteva itself agreed to hold off on dividends and buybacks, meaning the case is already shaping the company's capital-return plans before any ruling on the merits.

That puts the dispute past the stage of a structural allegation and into direct judicial reach over Corteva's balance sheet, at a point when bondholders and noteholders in the completed exchange offers had treated the separation as settled. What happens next turns on how the Seventh Circuit handles the emergency motion, not on the underlying PFAS liability question the states' case is built around.