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Attorney says nuisance lawsuits and outcomes would vary from state to state

An attorney with the National Agricultural Law Center says additional nuisance lawsuit jury awards against North Carolina hog farmers might continue.

Senior Staff Attorney Rusty Rumley tells Brownfield when producers for Smithfield Foods lost in court, North Carolina state lawmakers immediately recognized a need to update their Right to Farm statutes. “They’ve actually just updated their law a couple of weeks ago after the first verdict came down.”

But, Rumley says the new North Carolina law doesn’t change cases already filed. “It’s not going to be retroactive, so all cases that have currently been filed, all of those would proceed under the 2013 law, so no, it’s not going to affect any of the pending litigation.”

And, Rumley says the same facts and circumstances might have a different outcome in other states. “What a judge rules in North Carolina would be different than North Dakota versus Florida, versus Oklahoma, versus Wisconsin. Every state’s law is a little bit different and every state’s case law has evolved a little bit differently so you have to look at each state individually.”

He says stopping nuisance lawsuits is hard because people perceive the definition of a nuisance differently and because anyone can still file a lawsuit.

Listen to Rusty Rumley discuss nuisance lawsuits with Brownfield’s Larry Lee.