BIG STINK.

• Author: Bernhard, Kent, Jr.
• Position: STATEWIDE: East

A federal jury in Raleigh in April roasted a subsidiary of pork giant Smithfield Foods over waste disposal methods at a hog farm in Bladen County. But a judge's interpretation of a business-friendly law capping punitive damages could help save the company's bacon.

The 10-person jury awardeu $50.75 million in compensatory and punitive damages to neighbors of Bladen County's Kinlaw Farms, which has a contract to raise 15,000 hogs for Smithfield-owned MurphyBrown. It was the first of a series of suits over the company's waste-disposal methods. Plaintiffs had complained that the stench caused by hog waste at the farm prevented them from going outside or opening their windows, making a relatively new legal argument. Jurors decided each of the 10 plaintiffs should receive $75,000 in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages. Still pending are another 25 cases pitting the working-class plaintiffs against the Chinese-owned company, which has annual revenue of $15 billion.

The company lashed out at the litigation. "These lawsuits are an outrageous attack on all animal agriculture (not only hogs, but poultry, cattle, etc.), rural North Carolina and thousands of independent family farmers who own and operate contract farms," said Keira Lombardo, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Smithfield Foods, in a statement.

Lawyers for the company argued that a state law capped the amount of punitive damages payable to plaintiffs. In a May ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Earl Britt agreed, rolling back punitive...