Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 11/17/17


A federal judge has ruled that 26 cases comprising litigation brought by residents calling Murphy-Brown LLC hog farms an environmental nuisance can go to trial, according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina.

More than 500 plaintiffs living near the Smithfield Foods subsidiary’s hog farms contend its waste management systems, including spraying manure on nearby fields, negatively impact their health and quality of life. They seek to recover monetary damages for nuisance and negligence. 

Senior U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt rejected the defendant’s argument that North Carolina’s right-to-farm law protected the company from nuisance litigation. The law protects existing farming operations when other land uses extend into agricultural areas, but Britt noted that nuisances resulting from negligent or improper operation are exempt from the application of this law, and that plaintiffs have evidence showing their relatives have lived on their properties before adjacent swine farms began operating.

Britt, however, did allow Murphy-Brown’s request to seal various documents and to hear the company’s motion to separate the trials on Dec. 4.

Earlier this year, North Carolina passed a law, introduced by State Rep. Jimmy Dixon (R), capping the amount of money that hog farm neighbors could collect in nuisance lawsuits.

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