Source: Tom Johnston, MEATINGPLACE, 8/31/18



Senior U.S. District Judge Earl Britt today lifted a gag order he imposed on litigation in eastern North Carolina from hundreds of residents alleging that hog farms raising pigs for Smithfield Foods are a nuisance to their residential neighbors, court documents show.

Britt imposed the gag order on June 27 during the second of a potential 26 trials on the matter as publicity grew and concerns arose about it tainting the judicial process and future jurors.

Britt’s order today comes as Murphy-Brown, Smithfield’s hog production subsidiary, and attorneys for some 500 plaintiffs mediate. Both sides have asked the judge to certify the first three cases, allowing Smithfield to appeal them in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“Given that the next trial … has been recently continued until [Nov. 13], the court hereby VACATES its [June 27] order,” Britt wrote in the order, noting that parties seeking to re-establish a gag order will have to file a motion on or before Sept. 18.

Juries in all of the first three trials agreed with the plaintiffs’ claims that odors from open-air hog manure lagoons and the practice of neighboring farmers spraying manure on their fields have decreased their quality of life and property values. After applying a North Carolina law capping damages, the plaintiffs in those three cases won a total of nearly $100 million.

The National Pork Producers Council opposed the gag order, contending that it prevented hog farmers, as potential witnesses, from defending their operations in public.

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