Smithfield Settles Lawsuits
Friday, November 20, 2020 | #Hogwash | Author: Valerie Bauerlein | Original Article
Smithfield Settles Lawsuits Over Noise Smell of Hog Farms in North Carolina
Chinese-owned pork producer Smithfield Foods Inc. settled a series of lawsuits with dozens of residents in rural North Carolina over the nuisance caused by living near hog farms run by company contractors.
The settlement brings an end to more than two years of litigation over the noise and odors produced by traditional methods of hog farming, which include storing waste in open lagoons.
Financial details weren’t disclosed, but Smithfield said the settlement resolved dozens of cases that were pending or on appeal, including those with prior jury awards.
A series of juries had awarded $550 million in damages in five cases to neighbors living near Smithfield contractor farms in the southeastern part of the state. State law capping punitive damages knocked the total to $98 million.
Smithfield announced the settlement Thursday, shortly after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the company’s request for a retrial in a particular case. The court sided with Smithfield on one key point—that a lower court improperly let a jury consider the multimillion-dollar compensation of Smithfield executives, information that could be inappropriately used to set punitive damages.
Smithfield Chief Administrative Officer Keira Lombardo said the company is eager to focus on providing food during a global pandemic, not on continuing “distracting litigation.”
Mona Lisa Wallace, a lead lawyer for the neighbors, said the legal team was pleased with the appellate-court decisions and “thrilled at the positive outcome for our clients and the environment.”
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote that the hog industry is critical to the state’s economy, but that is no excuse for a farmer to interfere with the lives of neighbors, many of whom are Black and poor.
“Whether a home borders a golf course or a dirt road, it is a castle for those who reside in it,” he wrote. “It is where children play and grow, friends sit and visit, and a life is built.”
It isn’t clear what the environmental impact of the settlement might be. But Smithfield and Dominion Energy Inc. said in 2019 they were working on a $500 million project that would cover manure lagoons and capture gas at hog farms.
Write to Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com