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Bill to protect farms from nuisance lawsuits to be signed into law
Story Date: 7/19/2013
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Source: N.C. PORK COUNCIL, 7/18/13
NC's current "right-to-farm" law protects a farm or forestry operation that has been in existence for a year - and was not a nuisance at the time the operation began - from nuisance lawsuits brought by a party who has moved near the farm. The protections may not necessarily apply in situations where an existing neighbor brings a complaint against the farm.
A 1994 Court of Appeals decision (Durham V Britt) highlighted a weakness in NC's law. In that case, a farmer who had been raising turkeys decided to switch to hog production. When a nuisance complaint was brought against the farmer, the court decided that the right-to-farm protection did not apply because the one-year time period required for the protection was restarted when the type of commodity produced changed.
House Bill 614 - The NC Agriculture and Forestry Act - passed the House and Senate yesterday and now awaits the governor's signature. The new law will strengthen NC's right-to-farm law by expanding the protections to farms that have been in existence for at least a year, were not a nuisance when they began even if they have undergone any of the following:
· A change in ownership or size;
· An interruption of farming lasting for a period of no more than three years;
· Employment of new technology; or
· A change in the type of agricultural or forestry product produced.
The bill would also award attorneys' fees to a farmer who is the subject of a nuisance action and wins - hopefully serving as a deterrent for frivolous or malicious lawsuits intended to bankrupt a farm out of business.
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