Smithfield Foods Hit With $11M Verdict For Hog Waste

By Erin Fuchs

Law360, New York (March 05, 2010) -- A Missouri jury has handed an $11 million award to 15 residents who claimed that manure from a Smithfield Foods Inc. factory hog farm tainted their neighborhoods, in what the plaintiffs' lawyer described as the largest-ever verdict connected to hog emissions.

Smithfield unit Premium Standard Farms was hit with the jury verdict after a five-week trial on Thursday in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mo., the plaintiffs' lawyers said on Friday.

The 15 plaintiffs — who lived near the 4,300-acre factory hog farm in Berlin, Mo., — alleged that waste emissions from its concentrated animal feed operations caused a nuisance that hurt their quality of life.

The PSF farm confines 200,000 hogs every year that result in 83 million gallons of liquid waste in runoff lagoons, the plaintiffs said. This manure generated methane, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide that could be smelled for miles and often kept them indoors, they said.

PSF first leased the land for the farm in the early 1990s and the residents sued in 1995. “The families who brought this case have been living under a toxic cloud of hog waste produced by Premium Standard for more than 11 years,” plaintiffs' lawyer Richard H. Middleton said.

For its part, PSF said that the case presented the jury with “the impossible task of sorting” through 15 individuals' claims with distinctive issues. The farm intends to appeal the verdict and ask that each family's case be litigated separately. “That is the only way the parties can be assured a fair trial,” PSF said.

Meanwhile, the company said it's pleased the jury didn't tack on punitive damages. “We believe the verdict indicates recognition on the part of the jury of the substantial efforts we have made toward odor abatement,” the company said.

Smithfield will continue battling hog emissions claims as it appeals this case. The plaintiffs' lawyers say they represent 250 residents with claims still pending against the company in Missouri.

Smithfield, which merged with PSF in May 2007, has been fighting its insurer, TIG Insurance Co., in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri for defense and indemnification of nine separate hog waste lawsuits.

The underlying lawsuits against PSF allege that waste from the company's farms has caused nausea, headaches, burning eyes and other ailments, according to court documents filed by TIG. The neighboring residents also allege that the hog farms have damaged local streams and water sources.

The plaintiffs are represented by Seeger Weiss, The Speer Law Firm and The Middleton Firm.

PSF was represented by Lathrop & Gage LLP.

The case is Adwell et. al. v. Contigroup Cos. Inc. et. al., case number 02-cv-221544, in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mo.

--Additional reporting by Shannon Henson, Richard Vanderford and Mike Cherney