Lawsuit Abuse Targeting North Carolina Farms
A federal jury decided Friday that the world's largest pork producer should pay $473.5 million to neighbors of three North Carolina industrial-scale hog farms for unreasonable nuisances they suffered from odors, flies and rumbling trucks
The jury found that Smithfield Foods owes compensation to 16 neighbors who complained in their lawsuit that the company failed to stop "the obnoxious, recurrent odors and other causes of nuisance" resulting from closely packed hogs, which "generate many times more sewage than entire towns."
The jury awarded $23.5 million in compensatory damages and $450 million in punitive damages, which will be reduced under a state law that limits punitive damages.
American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall joined a special national agriculture roundtable highlighting a recent wave of nuisance lawsuits targeting North Carolina hog farms. The Aug. 3 event, which was held in Raleigh, North Carolina, brought together legislators and agriculture leaders to discuss the growing threat to farmers and exposed how out-of-state trial lawyers are using nuisance lawsuits to circumvent state right-to-farm laws.
The discussion centered on the economic impact of nuisance lawsuits on America’s farmers and rural communities.
“This is pitting neighbor against neighbor and community against community,” said Duvall. “The regulations need to be on the trial lawyers. We need to let our farmers and ranchers do what they do best, and that is feeding the world. They will not be a nuisance. They deserve a fair shot. They deserve to grow and succeed,” he said.
Statement of North Carolina Pork Council
The verdict is outrageous. The farms on trial were constructed in the mid-1990s. Since then, each of the six plaintiffs in this case either moved to the farms or built new homes in that farming community. None had made any complaints of nuisance until 2014, when the lawyers arrived to bring these lawsuits.
We urge prompt appellate review of the unfair and unjust judicial decisions that have shaped and fostered this outcome. There was no evidence in this trial to support a verdict like this against Murphy-Brown.
Outlandish verdicts like this one are a severe threat to our farmers. We care about our communities and neighbors. We care about the environment. We care about producing safe, affordable food for all in a responsible and sustainable way. Producing food is noble, not a nuisance.
We are thankful for the dozens of national agricultural leaders who gathered in Raleigh today to better understand this threat. But make no mistake. This verdict will lead to more lawsuits. This verdict will lead to more efforts to win money. This verdict will spread from eastern North Carolina to all corners of American agriculture.
This verdict represents a crisis for our agricultural community and an uncertain future for those who provide our food.