All eyes on Richmond: An update on Murphy-Brown’s appeal of nuisance lawsuits

 North Carolina’s hog farmers came under a vicious, well-financed attack by class-action law firms in recent years. Five cases went to trials, with negative – and unfair – outcomes in each. Now, the first trial, which involved the Kinlaw Farm in Bladen County, is making its way through the appeals process at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, based in Richmond, Va.

 The first trial verdict must be reversed. That’s the message from defendant Murphy-Brown in a persuasive 58-page brief that outlines, in meticulous detail, the numerous and significant errors made by W. Earl Britt, the judge who presided over the case.

 The appeal makes clear how critical the appeals court’s review will be.

 “This suit is the tip of a spear aimed at North Carolina’s agricultural economy,” the appeals brief says. “… A great deal depends on the outcome of these coordinated lawsuits, including the livelihoods of many in eastern North Carolina’s predominantly agricultural communities.”

 Indeed, it does.

 The appeals court filings — and accompanying briefs filed by the NC Pork Council, NC Farm Bureau, and other agricultural groups — outline how the plaintiffs received unfair jury decisions by claiming that hog farms near their rural North Carolina homes are a nuisance.

 The appeals note that the plaintiffs did not seek any injunctive relief — that is, they did not ask the court to make any changes on the farms. They just want money, and they have their sights set on Murphy-Brown, the state’s largest hog producer and a division of Smithfield Foods.

 Murphy-Brown has identified seven critical mistakes that occurred during the trial and by the judge that influenced the outcome of the cases. Those mistakes can be read here.

 “These errors took a costly toll. Deprived of the opportunity to resolve factual disputes, improperly exposed to prejudicial evidence, misled by one-sided expert testimony, and misinformed about the law, the jury awarded ten plaintiffs more than $50 million — all for the alleged annoyance and discomfort of living near a farm that opened nearly 25 years ago,” the court filing says.

 The brief filed by the NC Pork Council, NC Farm Bureau and other agricultural groups raises concerns about additional issues that call into question the “overall fairness of the trial, which does not give the appearance of having been conducted on a level playing field.” Specifically, they highlight the location of the trial and the court’s refusal to allow jurors to visit the Kinlaw Farm themselves.

 Through five trials, held from April 2018 to March 2019, juries awarded 36 plaintiffs a total of $550.5 million. (The awards were later reduced to approximately $98 million due to a state law that places a limit on punitive damages.)  Those verdicts have put family farmers out of business and taken a toll on our rural communities.

 What Happens Next

Murphy-Brown has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to consider the following options:

 (1) Reverse the punitive damages award because there was insufficient evidence to allow punitive damages, and order a new trial limited to liability and compensatory damages;

 (2) Dismiss the case because (a) damages should have been limited to the plaintiffs’ loss of property value, of which none was presented, and (b) the trial did not include Kinlaw Farms, an indispensable party, thereby forcing the plaintiffs to refile their case in state court; or

 (3) Order a new trial that (a) excludes the testimony of plaintiffs’ expert Shane Rogers and permits the excluded testimony of Dr. Pamela Dalton; (b) excludes improper evidence relating to the profits of Smithfield Food and WH Group, as well as the nationality of ownership; and (c) allows the jury to determine whether the claimed nuisance is continuing or recurring.

 Murphy-Brown has requested the opportunity to present its case in front of a Court of Appeals panel. At this time, no decision has been made about whether oral arguments will be made. If allowed, those arguments would not be made until December 2019 or early next year.

 There is no set timeline for when the Court of Appeals may ultimately decide this case. If oral arguments are presented, the court typically issues a ruling within three to six months. In the meantime, the remaining nuisance lawsuits – and future planned trials – are on hold.

 So, we wait. And we pray. And we hope that the appeals court will exercise wisdom and good judgment in reversing the many errors that were made in a Raleigh courtroom.  We will continue to stand by our family farmers and tell their side of the story.

The N.C. Pork Council recently published a comprehensive update on the nuisance lawsuits and the appeal filed by Murphy-Brown with the U.S. Court of Appeals. NC Farm Families is providing a condensed summary of that article to keep our farm families informed about the status of the lawsuits and the arguments in Murphy-Brown’s appeal. You can read the entire article in the NC Pork Report.

Firing back against another attack on the pork industry

Another media outlet — funded by activists who oppose animal agriculture — has taken aim at North Carolina’s pork industry. The Food & Environment Report Network (FERN) and The Guardian published an article from a freelance reporter decrying the relatively low number of complaints filed against North Carolina hog farms and implying that complaints had “vanished.” (The News & Observer and The Charlotte Observer subsequently jumped at the opportunity to run another negative article about hog farmers.)

The article reports that North Carolina received only 33 public complaints against livestock operations from 2008 to 2018, while other hog states registered “literally thousands” during the same time period.  

An interesting theory, perhaps, but one that is factually wrong.

State records, publicly available and posted online, show that there were at least 474 complaints in North Carolina during that 10-year period. Not 33.

That’s still fewer than a state like Iowa, which had 2,393 complaints (assuming that data is accurate) during those ten years.

A good reporter might ask “why is that?” and do a little digging. He might, for example, consider that Iowa has three times as many hog farms as North Carolina.

Or, a good reporter might explain that North Carolina has one of the nation’s most stringent regulatory programs for hog farms, including mandatory on-site inspections of every hog farm in the state — every year — to ensure they are complying with the rules and regulations.

That means that, during that 10-year period, there were more than 24,000 on-site inspections of our hog farms. A good reporter might consider the idea that a rigorous inspection program leads to fewer complaints. Rather than attack state regulators, he might praise them. 

Instead, this freelance reporter jumps to his own conclusion and speculates that complaints simply vanish into thin air — despite no evidence to support that claim.

To bolster his argument, the reporter points to a sudden rise in complaints from November 2018 to April 2019.

The state received 138 complaints related to animal agriculture during that time-frame, resulting in 62 violations. Only 11 of those violations involved hog farmers. 

Two reactions:first, it’s worth noting that fewer than half of the complaints resulted in any type of violation. Farmers have often been upset about unfounded allegations that are made against them.

Second, if there were 11 violations against hog farms, that means there were 51 violations (82%) that involved something other than hog farming. So, why did the reporter direct his attack at hog farmers?

We all know the answer. Because hog farming is constantly in the cross-hairs. And activist organizations that want to do away with animal agriculture are often involved in directly funding this type of “reporting.” (Read more about that from the North Carolina Pork Council.)

The bias is clear.

Here’s one example: The article featured comments from Rene Miller, from Duplin County, who lives near a hog farm. Here’s what she says about living near a farm: “it smells like a body that’s been decomposed for a month.”

The reporter initially failed to mention that Miller is a plaintiff in the ongoing series of nuisance lawsuits filed against Murphy-Brown and thus had a clear motivation for making such outlandish, ridiculous and unbelievable comments.

But it sure did make a great quote! The Guardian actually used her quote as the headline for its story.

The reporter went on to dutifully highlight a litany of allegations against the pork industry, including unsupported claims of health issues and false accusations about the demographics around hog farms.  

The NC Pork Council provided detailed rebuttals to both “studies” — providing factual data about who lives near North Carolina hog farms and a report from a PhD that outlines serious problems with the health study mentioned in the article.

The reporter gave scant attention to those objections, mischaracterizing the Pork Council’s concerns and failing to explain why it believes the studies are flawed.

This type of reporting about our industry is disappointing, but not surprising. Our farmers have been under constant attack and there are no signs of it letting up. NC Farm Families will continue to stand up for our farmers and fight back against these blatant mischaracterizations of our industry.

Following the Footsteps of a Farmer--The Coombs Family

The love of farming is, in many cases, passed down from generation to generation. Each new farmer carries on the legacy of previous farmers from years past. While they may work towards expanding the farm, or making improvements in various ways, they tend to have one thing on their mind—make them proud. The them is the generations of farmers that came before. For Joshua Coombs, generations of his family have passed down the love of the farm, and it doesn’t seem that it will stop with him.

Josh’s great-grandaddy grew hogs on the ground where soybeans are now planted on the Coomb’s farm. His dad built hog houses in 1995 to be able to take the pigs from the ground and move them inside.

“My great-grandaddy started it and my granddaddy expanded it. Then, my dad built upon that expansion,” said Josh, “I was here when they built those first four houses. I was here during the whole process. I knew I never wanted to leave,” he continued.

And he hasn’t left. Josh is continuing in the footsteps of previous generations in many ways. He is not only a farmer, but he is also a paid fireman with the city of Clinton (a role he’s played for 16 years), something his dad also did. Working nine, 24 hour shift days a month, Josh serves the citizens of Clinton, Sampson County and anyone commuting through Clinton. Josh is a captain for Clinton Fire, he is an EMT, and he is a pig farmer. Perhaps the two biggest reasons Josh has taken on these roles is his love of helping others and being inspired to be like his dad.

“My dad was a fireman. He started the farm. He also made it to fire captain. I’m basically following his footsteps and doing what Dad did,” said Josh.

When it comes to the farm, Josh is making his own stamp on things. Josh is an avid outdoorsman and loves to fish and hunt. His love for the outdoors is one reason why protecting the environment is so important to him. He protects the environment in many different ways like following regulations. He has also worked with the NC Forestry Service to manage the wooded areas on his farm. When it was time to clear-cut acres of timber from the farm, Josh thought it was important to not just let the areas grow back with brush, so working with the Forestry Service and guys who specialized in planting trees, he planted 166 acres of Loblolly pine to provide habitat for wildlife. He hopes to do the same thing to other tracks of land on the farm.

“ I see a lot of wildlife here. Just about every afternoon, my boys and I will watch the deer around the bean field and the hog houses. They’re so busy munching on the soybeans, they don’t even care that we are there,” said Josh about the wildlife he sees on the farm. He also sees turkeys, quail, dove, and more on the farm. Farms are many times a quiet, peaceful place with open spaces for wildlife to enjoy.

Being a farmer isn’t just about enjoying the outdoors or carrying on the heritage of generations to come, for Josh, it is also a great place to raise a family. Josh and his wife Jessica, have two little boys and just recently announced a third baby on the way!

“I love raising the family on the farm. It’s relaxing. It teaches my little boys to have a good work ethic and it also teaches them the values of life like how to be a good neighbor, how to be a friend, that hard work pays off, and always put God first-- family second,” said Josh.

The Coombs boys love being on the farm. They are full of energy, and the farm gives them wide open spaces to run around. They also love to check on the pigs and watch for wildlife with their daddy.

The Coombs’s farm family extends beyond just Josh, Jessica, the kids and immediate family, though. It also includes their integrator, Prestage Farms, and the entire pork industry. In 2017, Josh had to have open heart surgery. Many people called to check on Josh and offer to help on the farm, even though they didn’t have to. But, that’s just how the farming world works. We are one big family.

Today, you can find Josh at the fire department, at home, or on the farm. He’s doing what he loves—helping others, feeding others, and leaving a farming legacy for others. Who knows, in a few years, we may be interviewing those little Coombs boys in the pictures here, and they say, “I followed in dad’s footsteps. I’m a farmer too.”