A jury of nine women and one man began deliberations Friday in the fourth hog nuisance lawsuit that has threatened farms and communities of eastern North Carolina.
The case is being heard in a federal courtroom in Raleigh and involves Sholar Farms of Sampson County. Smithfield Foods subsidiary Murphy-Brown, as it has been in three previous cases, is the defendant; plaintiffs are eight neighbors.
A decision had not been rendered before press time Monday for this print edition of the Bladen Journal.
David Faber, of West Virginia, is on the bench. The jury is from Wake County, roughly an hour from the farm.
The defendant’s lead attorney is Robert Thackston, a lawyer based in Texas with ties to North Carolina. McGuireWoods, which led the first three cases, remains a part of the company’s counsel.
Plaintiffs are represented by Michael Kaeske, the Texas lawyer who came to the Old North State and lassoed neighbors of farms contracted by Smithfield Foods. His roundup since 2014 has led to 26 cases, including two of three already decided and appealed with ties to Bladen County.
According to published reports, the eight plaintiffs are in three homes more than a half-mile away from the farm. Six moved in after the farm was there.
Observers watching the nuisance cases unfold since the spring say the results could have significant impacts on hog farming in the state. In eastern North Carolina, damage to the industry could be far-reaching into communities.
Duplin, Sampson and Bladen counties are the leaders in hog production for the state, and rank among the top 15 in the nation. The industry provides 46,000 jobs and is worth $11 billion in North Carolina, which is second only to Iowa in hog production.
Steve Troxler, the state agriculture commissioner, has called it a threat to farmers and ranchers across the country.
Thus far, three trials have been won by the plaintiffs, with juries having awarded $549.25 million in damages. The amounts were capped by North Carolina law on punitive damages at $97.88 million.
The first of the 26 cases involved Kinlaw Farms, owned by Billy Kinlaw along N.C. 53 where about 15,000 pigs were being raised. The jury on April 26 said 10 neighbors were to be awarded $50.75 million, an amount reduced to $3.25 million by the punitive damages law.
The case of the Joey Carter Farm near Beulaville ended June 29, with plaintiffs Elvis and Vonnie Williams awarded $25.13 million — $65,000 each in compensatory damages, $12.5 million each in punitive damages. The punitive cap, $250,000 each, put their combined award from the jury at $630,000.
Pender County farms involving Elizabethtown-based HD3 Farms of the Carolinas’ subsidiary Greenwood Livestock LLC, owned by White Lake businessman Dean Hilton, were involved in the third lawsuit. A judgment of $473.5 million on Aug. 3 included $450 million in punitive damages and $23.5 million in compensatory damages. State law reduced the combined amount to $94 million.
HD3 Farms has operations in Bladen, Sampson, Robeson, Scotland, Columbus, Duplin, Hoke and Pender counties.
All three cases were appealed to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia.
Thackston is a partner with Hawkins, Parnell, Thackston & Young, a firm with offices coast to coast. The product of UNC’s School of Law is based in Dallas; licensed to practice in state and federal courts in Texas, North Carolina, California, Illinois, Virginia and New York; and in appeals courts for the 4th Circuit in Richmond, Virginia, and the 5th Circuit in New Orleans.
Kaeske, owner of a law firm in Austin, Texas, is a former member of the Dallas law firm suing Chemours, the chemical plant at the Bladen-Cumberland county line that produces the GenX compound.