A jury has ruled that Premium Standard Farms must pay $4.5 million to three families who claimed the animal waste stench from the company’s farm near Trenton created a nuisance.
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The families own or owned property near the hog farm. Receiving $750,000 each are John Arnold, Carlotta Arnold, Leslie Turner, Denise Turner, David Gwinn and the estate of Gwinn’s father, Roy Gwinn.
The same Jackson County jury also found grounds for punitive damages against Kansas City-based Premium Standard Farms, but the company agreed not to appeal the actual damages award and the plaintiffs in exchange dropped their request for punitive damages.
The property owners or former property owners are part of a wider lawsuit that includes more than 50 other lawsuits against Premium Standard Farms. A separate class action lawsuit involving a consortium of law firms seeks to represent anyone who owns property within 10 miles of the company’s more than 20 hog farms in Missouri.
Premium Standard has about 2,200 employees in Missouri and is the second largest pork producer in the United States. It is currently owned by ContiGroup Cos. Inc. in New York but is in the process of being sold to Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest pork producer in the world.