Judge slashes penalty for pork giant

A federal judge has slashed $50 million in damages that a jury awarded neighbours of an industrial hog operation in order to punish a pork producer for smells and noise so bad that people couldn’t enjoy their rural homes.

U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt ruled this week that North Carolina law required him to cut the size of punitive damages to $2.5 million total for the 10 plaintiffs. Attorneys for the homeowners did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.

Britt cited state law that limits the punishment for corporate misdeeds to no more than $250,000, an amount 1/20th the $5 million that jurors last month ordered Smithfield Foods to pay each neighbour. Neighbours of a 15,000-head Bladen County swine operation also were awarded $75,000 each in compensation for conditions that prevented them from enjoying their own property.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys had argued the state’s cap on punitive damages was unconstitutional because it violates the right to a jury trial. However, attorneys for the neighbours recognized they were asking Britt to rule contrary to a 2004 state Supreme Court decision that determined that limiting how heavily misdeeds could be punished was no barrier to a jury deciding who was at fault.

“The jury’s role in awarding punitive damages can be dictated by our state’s policy-making body, the General Assembly, without violating plaintiffs’ constitutional right to trial by jury,” Britt wrote in his order filed Monday.

The decision was the first in dozens of lawsuits filed by more than 500 neighbours complaining about hog operations.