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A4 U.S. NEWS
Friday 20 November 2020

Court upholds nuisance verdicts against hog-production giant

By GARY D. ROBERTSON wrong for Britt to allow jurors
Associated Press to consider the same infor-
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A mation in determining the
federal appeals court on size of punitive damages,
Thursday upheld a 2018 jury citing "the particular ability
verdict that led to award- of potentially inflammatory
ing monetary damages to evidence to sway a jury's
neighbors of a North Caroli- calculation." The court va-
na industrial hog operation cated the punitive award
for smells and noise they and will return the case to
said made living nearby the trial court to determine
unbearable. appropriate damages.
But judges ruled the jurors' An attorney representing
massive multimillion-dollar the plaintiffs and a spokes-
awards — intended to pe- person for Smithfield didn't
nalize a subsidiary of the immediately respond to
world's largest pork produc- requests for comment on
er for wrongdoing — were Thursday.
unfairly weighed against Circuit Judge G. Steven
the its corporate assets and Agee wrote separately to
must be reconsidered. The In this July 21, 2017, file photo, young hogs owned by Smithfield Foods gather around a water say he would have given
source at a farm in Farmville, N.C.
decision by the 4th U.S. Associated Press Murphy-Brown a new trial.
Circuit Court of Appeals in The plaintiffs, Agee wrote,
Richmond, Virginia, could North Carolina that raised plus $50 million in damages farming practices despite used "overtly irrelevant,
affect similar nuisance cas- 15,000 hogs annually for the designed to punish Smith- its knowledge of the harms prejudicial and unreliable
es filed by North Carolina company and disposed field and WH Group. North to its neighbors." She men- evidence" that made the
rural residents already on of massive amounts of fe- Carolina state law forced tioned piles of hog carcass- verdict invalid.
appeal that went against ces and urine there. The U.S. District Judge Earl Britt es in dumpsters on the farm, The case was the first that
Smithfield Foods or haven't neighbors of Kinlaw Farms to cut the punitive dam- extensive summer spraying went to trial among dozens
gone to trial. had filed suit, complaining ages to $2.5 million. of hog waste from lagoons of lawsuits filed by more
A majority on the three- they had suffered for years Writing the prevailing opin- onto fields, and trucks run- than 500 neighbors com-
judge panel rejected the from intense, putrid smells ion, U.S. Circuit Judge ning at all hours. Smithfield plaining about hog opera-
arguments of attorneys coming from open-air hog Stephanie Thacker reject- ultimately removed its hogs tions. A handful that went
for Murphy-Brown LLC that waste lagoons. They al- ed several arguments from from Kinlaw Farms. to trial went against Smith-
a new trial should be or- leged that Smithfield Foods Smithfield's lawyers where It was appropriate for jurors field, leading to hundreds
dered. Murphy-Brown is refused to spend money on they said Britt erred, includ- to consider the large bank of millions of dollars in pu-
a subsidiary of Smithfield, technology that could ad- ing whether the issue of accounts annd executives' nitive damages that were
which in turn is owned by dress these problems. punitive damages should salaries at Smithfield and later reduced.
Hong Kong-based WH The jurors declared Murphy- even have been put to the WH Group in determin- Early litigation losses led the
Group Limited. Brown interfered with the jury. ing whether it could have state legislature to approve
The jurors found the com- enjoyment of the residents' Thacker said there was paid to improve technol- a law that placed tougher
pany liable for the nui- property. The 10 neigh- ample evidence for jurors ogy and other conditions restrictions upon neighbors
sance conditions at a Blad- bors received a total of to conclude the compa- at Kinlaw Farms, Thacker of hog farms seeking to sue
en County farm in eastern $750,000 in compensation, ny "persisted in its chosen wrote. But she said it was for damages. q

Police: Steam ‘pressure event’ killed workers at VA hospital

said Thursday. on a leaky pipe when they hospital's labor shops, such
The investigation continues, died. as carpentry and plumb-
and state police did not of- He said the accident hap- ing, a hospital spokesper-
fer an explanation for the pened as the pipe was be- son said.
cause of the accident at ing refilled with steam. The state police Fire & Ex-
the VA campus in West Ha- In releasing preliminary plosion Investigative Unit is
ven on Nov. 13. findings of the investiga- leading the investigation,
The accident killed a VA tion, state police said the with help from the federal
maintenance worker, Euel episode initially described Bureau of Alcohol, Tobac-
Sims, 60, a Navy veteran as an explosion was a co, Explosives and Firearms.
from Milford, and a pri- "pressure event" within the U.S. Sens. Richard Blumen-
vate contractor, Joseph steam system. thal and Chris Murphy, both
O'Donnell, 36, of Danbury. "This event caused super- Connecticut Democrats,
Three other workers were heated water vapor to are among those calling for
injured, officials said. rapidly fill the room and the federal government to
Veterans Affairs Police guard the entrance to a maintenance Alfred Montoya Jr., direc- building," police said. "The approve major renovations
facility after an apparent steam explosion in a maintenance tor of the VA Connecticut two occupants working on to the VA campus.
building at a Veterans Affairs hospital in West Haven, Conn., Healthcare System, said the system were not able Officials said the hospital
Friday, Nov. 13, 2020. last week that Sims and to evacuate the room and was built in the 1950s and
Associated Press O'Donnell, a welder and suffered fatal injuries. There underwent a renovation in
WEST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — killed by the rapid release pipefitter, were in the base- was no apparent criminal the 1990s, but has decaying
Two workers who died at a of hot water vapor during ment of the small outer aspect." infrastructure and is on a list
Connecticut Veterans Af- maintenance work on the building and had just fin- The building where the of aging VA facilities that
fairs hospital last week were steam system, state police ished routine maintenance men were killed houses the need to be replaced.q