Illegal Discharge Of Solid Wastes By Factory Hog Farms

Illegal Discharge of Solid Wastes by Factory Hog Farms

During the past several years, Seeger Weiss LLP has been one of the national leaders in actions against several of the nation's largest industrial hog farm operators. These cases, pending in several jurisdictions throughout the country, were brought on behalf of public citizens, riparian property owners, and other residents in the vicinity of factory hog farms who have suffered from environmental and atmospheric degradation caused by the illegal discharge of hazardous and non-hazardous solid wastes contained in the enormous quantities of hog feces and other wastes produced by the industrial farmer defendants.

Premium Standard Farms

On March 4, 2010, Seeger Weiss brought home another victory against giant agro-business Premium Standard Farms, when a Missouri jury awarded $11.05 million to the 15 neighboring owners of small farms today. Co-founder Stephen A. Weiss has led the charge against these giant factory farms, whose careless and illegal disposal of waste products degrades the air and land around them. As co-lead counsel for the farmers’ whose lives and livelihoods had been handicapped by overpowering hog odors, Mr. Weiss proved to the jury, seated in Jackson County, Missouri, that Premium Standard Farms had failed to sufficiently address the problem in the 11 years since the Missouri Attorney General issued an order to do so. This verdict is the largest monetary award against a hog farm in an odor nuisance case. Read more here.

Selected Media Coverage

AmLaw Daily:

“You can’t simply come into these environs, decimate the land, and expect not to be held accountable,” said plaintiffs counsel Stephen Weiss of Seeger Weiss. ”We don’t want to put them out of business. We just want them to reform how they do business.” Weiss told us residents and Premium Standard began negotiating a global settlement after the company won a defense verdict in a 2007 trial, but those talks ended when a memo from the company was leaked to the Kansas City Star. “That chilled the discussions for reasons I don’t understand,” Weiss told us. “[Premium Standard's parent company] chose to walk away from any global settlement.”

Virginia Pilot:

“These corporations have chosen to invade traditional family farming communities and construct industrial operations that simply fail to respect the community and the land,” said Stephen A. Weiss, a New York attorney who represented the families.

Kansas City Star:

Several are fifth-generation farming families. They testified that the odors and swarms of flies sometimes drove them indoors. The situation made it hard to invite people over for barbecues or picnics, they said. One woman who sold Mary Kay cosmetics said she couldn’t have parties at her house. The daughter of one couple testified she couldn’t play outside as a child when the odors rolled in.