Horrible-Smell Hog Farm Case Wins $50 Million From Smithfield
Update: Horrible-Smell Hog Farm Case Wins $50 Million From Smithfield
By Dan Nosowitz on April 27, 2018
This is a hog smelling, not a hog's smell. HomeAndGardners on Flickr
After four years, a lawsuit targeting unnecessarily putrid hog farm feces pits—you read that right, although we'd understand if you'd prefer not to have that image in your head—has come to an initial decision.
The case involved ten plaintiffs in North Carolina who are unlucky enough to live near a major industrial hog operation. That operation, Kinlaw Farms, is not the target of the lawsuit; Kinlaw is ultimately beholden to Smithfield Foods, theh company for which they raise hogs. The plaintiffs alleged that the use of anaerobic lagoons—literally huge pits of hog feces—has negatively affected their quality of life thanks to putrid odors, buzzards, and swarms of insects. (For more info on the case, check out our earlier coverage.)
A federal jury, after a two-day deliberation, awarded over $50 million to the plaintiffs: $75,000 each in compensatory damages and $5 million each in punitive damages. Interestingly, and disturbingly, even if the case survives on appeal, the plaintiffs may not be able to secure the latter money.
In the past four years, since the suit was filed, lawmakers with financial ties to the lucrative hog industry have attempted to put a hard cap on the amount of money a plaintiff can receive in this kind of lawsuit. Despite a veto from the North Carolina’s governor, that hard cap passed, which limits the amount of damages to three times the compensatory damages, which would be only $225,000, far less than the amount the jury ruled the plaintiffs are entitled to.