Chief Judge Michael Mihm of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois announced on Wednesday that he intends to enter a written order granting summary judgment to the defendants before Sept. 1, a clerk said on Friday.

Mihm made his intentions known in a conference call with the lawyers, an ADM spokesman said.

Grain processor Cargill Inc., the world's largest privately owned company, the A.E. Staley unit of sugar group Tate & Lyle (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: TATE.L) and food additive maker American Maize Products Co. (AMEX:AZEA - news) are also named defendants in the lawsuit, which includes all users of high-fructose corn syrup such as bottlers and bakers as potential plaintiffs.

The class-action lawsuit stems from a mid-1990s federal antitrust probe focusing on animal feed additive lysine, food ingredient citric acid and high-fructose corn syrup. ADM executives Michael Andreas and Terrance Wilson were convicted for their roles in a scheme to fix the price of lysine and informant Mark Whitacre also was sentenced to prison.

``We are very pleased that the judge in the federal court reviewed all the facts and found no basis for trial,'' ADM spokesman Larry Cunningham said.

Twenty-two separate class-action lawsuits were consolidated into the one case assigned to Mihm, Cunningham said. Some state-level lawsuits with similar allegations about high-fructose corn syrup remain pending, he said.

The judge has requested additional briefing from the attorneys of record before he issues the written order, the clerk said.

Shares of Decatur, Illinois-based ADM closed on Friday at $14.16, up 21 cents, on the New York Stock Exchange.