Jury Awards Millions in Sustainable Hog Case

Last week a jury in federal court awarded more than $470 million to six people who live from one-third of a mile to one mile away from a hog farm, run by Murphy Brown and affiliate of Smithfield Foods, in a rural patch of Pender County, North Carolina. The lawsuit is the third to go to verdict of more than two dozen cases pending in North Carolina. In April another federal jury award ten families in Bladen County $50 Million. And then in June a different jury awarded $25 million to a couple in Duplin County. Of note, the most recent verdict is against two farms that have the largest ‘humanely raised’ hog operations in the state. Hog farms are a multi Billion dollar business in North Carolina, the second largest pork producing state (second to Iowa). And while there is no doubt that the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals will review these verdicts, including how statutory damages caps reduce the amounts actually collectible, these cases present a harsh reality of farms…

Read more detail on Recent Environmental Law posts –

This entry was posted in Environmental Law and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply