Source: Lisa M. Keefe, MEATINGPLACE, 6/15/18


A controversial measure that would make it more difficult to sue hog producers for allegedly being a nuisance and dragging down neighbors’ property rights has been finalized by the state’s lawmakers, according to media reports.

Versions of the bill, Farm Act Senate Bill 711, were approved by the state’s Senate and House earlier this week. On Thursday the Senate approved the House’s proposed changes. The final version of the bill moves to the desk of Gov. Roy Cooper, who could sign it, veto it, or allow it to become state law without his signature.

The second of what could be a host of nuisance suits is being heard in federal court now. In April, a jury awarded $50 million to 10 neighbors of a large hog farmer raising the animals for the Murphy-Brown unit of Smithfield; the residents had sued the processor, rather than the farmer himself. The award was later reduced in compliance with an existing North Carolina law that caps damages.

The bill requires that nuisance lawsuits be filed within one year of the establishment of the operation in question — the bill only applies to agriculture or forestry businesses — or within a year of “fundamental change,” which definition does not include changes in ownership, technology, product or size of the operation. So, a small hog farm that grows to several thousand pigs (and their manure), as the farm in the first lawsuit did, would presumably be protected from the type of nuisance lawsuits that are wending their way through the courts.

The bill also disallows punitive damages in cases that are filed unless the operator has a criminal conviction or has received a regulatory notice of a violation of state laws.

The provision was added to the Farm Act, which also prohibits soy, almond, coconut and other plant-based milk suppliers from labeling their products as "milk" in North Carolina.

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