Asbestos-Style Lawsuits Growing in N.C. Agribusiness Trials

By Sara Corcoran, Courts Monitor Publisher and CityWatch LA DC Dispatch Contributor

 

Terry Sanford Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Raleigh, N.C. where multiple hog farm trials are being held.

Terry Sanford Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Raleigh, N.C. where multiple hog farm trials are being held.

Recently, North Carolina has been making national headlines for its tawdry and tainted congressional election, but for some observers, an equally interesting civil courts drama is playing out in the Tar Heel state: Iconic big-money asbestos lawyers are now driving hog farm lawsuits.

This week, as in four previous trials, plaintiffs suing hog farms for being an unreasonable nuisance are represented by Michael Kaeske, a Dallas attorney known for asbestos cases. His team is joined by Lisa Blue, the widow of Fred Baron, who made the Dallas-based Baron & Budd an asbestos litigation giant. Baron & Budd is also known in North Carolina because of Fred Baron’s close relationship with former VP candidate John Edwards, allegedly helping conceal Edwards’ former mistress, Rielle Hunter, during Edwards’ VP run.

Baron & Budd is also notorious for its involvement in witness coaching described in the “Mystery of the Missing Memo.” (I wrote about this strange practice in the Huffington Post back in December of 2017.) The memo is an asbestos-lawsuit legend, and significant because N.C. critics of the hog farm lawsuits claim that similar tactics are being utilized in their cases.

There are multiple cases filed so far and in three of the four trials last fall, juries awarded a combined half-billion dollars in damages, although N.C. personal injury law caps should reduce that amount to approximately $100 million dollars. All the cases are being appealed.

It’s worth noting that the hog farm lawsuits do not make claims of environmental damage, health concerns or other damages. They basically claim the smell of hog waste is so bad that it becomes an unreasonable nuisance and diminishes their quality of life. The resulting evidence, including decades-old government documents and detailed expert testimony rolling out over weeks, would seem familiar to anyone who has seen an asbestos trial.

In a possible legal strategy to fight asbestos lawyers with other asbestos lawyers, the defendants, after the first three cases, have been represented by Robert Thackston. Mr. Thackston, a North Carolina native with offices in Dallas and Los Angeles, has been associated with high-profile asbestos defense for decades.

The tables seemed to turn in the defendants’ favor for the fourth case. Senior District Court Judge David Faber (a different judge than in the first three trials) refused to allow some of the evidence of the first cases. The jury awarded about $100,000 to eight hog farm neighbors and half of the plaintiffs received only $100. Then Judge Faber nixed the punishment phase of the trial.

This pattern of small client payouts relative to the award offers another parallel to asbestos litigation. Also, the three cases that went pro-plaintiff had a different federal judge than the fourth case which was pro-defendant. Off the record, many key asbestos lawyers claim that judicial attitudes carry too much weight in asbestos trials; similar claims from both sides are being made in the hog farm decisions.

The left-leaning “Progressive Pulse” blog, affiliated with the North Carolina Policy Watch, noted that Judge Faber nixed testimony about ownership by a Chinese firm and also declined to allow evidence on industry executives’ salaries.

“Those are emotional arguments,” the judge ruled.

As this area of litigation produces more awards, just like asbestos litigation did, national politicians are also taking notice. They point out that these are federal trials with possible national implications for agricultural operations.

“We need to come up with model legislation, we need to figure out what the federal government should do,” said U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, a N.C. Republican who was part of an agriculture roundtable in Raleigh last fall. “We need to send a very clear message to the trial lawyers: We’re bigger than you when we coordinate.”

Even media coverage is split along urban-rural lines, with The News & Observer, a California-owned Raleigh daily which won a Pulitzer in the 90s for a hog farm series, embracing an environmentalist tone. Outlets closer in proximity to hog farm communities have been more sympathetic to the farmers, including an in-depth investigative report from a Wilmington TV station offering a relatively sordid tale of out-of-state lawyers, angry state judges, and ethical quandaries.

In her report at WECT, journalist Casey Roman, also noted that “… how the plaintiffs were enlisted is a question with no clear answer. Spend time in any of the areas under scrutiny, and you will hear wildly different stories. On one side are accusations the legal teams went door to door recruiting plaintiffs for an issue the lawyers manufactured under the promise of a big payout.” Roman counters that “…….on the other side the plaintiffs had been  pleading for relief for years with no recourse until finally a legal entity would hear their case and offer their services.”

She also reports that the farming community found significant fault with both the trials’ location in the urban “Research Triangle” and the fact that jurors have not visited the hog farms. She says “.. they said they feel it is unfair that city-dwelling jurors would be tasked with making a verdict on how agricultural areas operate.”

The WECT report also explains the details of who is named in the lawsuits. Hint: It’s not the actual farmers in question, but the company contracting with the farms. Of course, pitting sympathetic plaintiffs against deep-pocketed corporations is a staple of asbestos lawsuits.

Could this be another parallel? With two dozen hog farm cases pending in North Carolina, with about 500 plaintiffs, hog farm cases are gaining velocity. Considering the livestock industry in California, we will likely see this type of “asbestos-style” ag litigation gain momentum on the West Coast. Will the Bear Flag State be tarred and feathered during the year of the pig?

What remains to be seen is if, like the asbestos cases, awards push hog farmers into bankruptcy and create court-ordered bankruptcy trusts to handle settlements.

Latino Community Rallies Around Clinton

Sara Cocoran Warner, Founding Publisher of the California Courts Monitor

Sara Cocoran Warner, Founding Publisher of the California Courts Monitor

Read the latest Huffington Post article, “Latino Community Rallies Around Clinton,” by Courts Monitor Publisher, Sara Warner. Sara provides her thoughts about the importance of the Latino community to the presidential election, as well as the implications it has on the U.S. Supreme Court and issues like immigration and civil rights.

CM Publisher Posts Veteran’s Asbestos Plight On HuffPo

Courts Monitor Publisher Sara Warner has posted to The Huffington Post about how asbestos cancer policy impacts U.S. veterans. She notes that “… every year, hundreds or even thousands of American veterans who thought they survived military service discover that they were wrong; exposure to asbestos was a mortal wound that took decades to surface, evolving into the much-advertised mesothelioma, a terminal cancer.

She adds that “… both sides also agree that the government under which those vets served excludes itself from the resulting accountability, at least in the U.S. courts. What they do not agree upon is how to fix it, and the resulting debate has left veterans taking sides.”

Read the post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-warner/a-sad-truth-for-veterans_b_9417622.html

HuffPo Offers Look Back One Year After Ferguson

In one of those “it’s been a year already?” moments, the Huffington Post is offering a major deep-dive story into what the Ferguson unrest meant to both the local community and to the United States. It’s a good look at how things have changed, including the media treatment of police shootings. In particular, the story illustrates how non-criminal cases migrate into jail-worthy events.
 
The team-written report mostly comes down on the side of things getting better and perhaps the protests paying off, saying “… Ferguson’s protests spawned at least 40 state measures aimed at improving police tactics and use of force. The national conversation around race and policing has shifted so dramatically that the director of the FBI said law enforcement officials historically enforced “a status quo that was often brutally unfair to disfavored groups” and discussed how unconscious racial bias affects police officers with no pushback from the law enforcement community.”
 
See the story here: The Ferguson Protests Worked

Compton Mayor, Justice Issues Profiled In HuffPo piece

Courts Monitor Publisher Sara Warner has published a Huffington Post profile on Compton Mayor Aja Brown, drawing from a Time Magazine profile last year and an exclusive interview with the mayor. You can read it here: In California’s ‘Hip Hop City,’ Mayor Looks ‘Beyond Brooklyn’

US House Drops Border-Crisis Bill

BREAKING NEWS: The U.S. House of representatives has dropped a bill that would have provided some $659 million in funding to address the 60,000 unaccompanied children that have arrived on the southwest border. The Huffington Post noted that “… the bill had significant opposition from Democrats, but GOP leadership decided to add a separate vote, if the first were to pass, on a measure meant to bring on conservative support: ending a key Obama policy that allows undocumented young people in the U.S. for years to remain in the country. 

Citing other reports, HuffPo says the GOP needed to get to 218 votes but managed only 214.

The HuffPo backgrounder graf is pretty good: “More than 57,500 unaccompanied children and teenagers have been apprehended after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally since October, overwhelming a system already plagued by backlogs and in need of significant resources. President Barack Obama requested $3.7 billion to deal with the crisis, and Senate Democrats proposed a $2.7 billion package. House Republicans introduced a bill to approve just a fraction of that sum — with the possibility of appropriating more funds later — with conditions many Democrats oppose, such as changing a 2008 law so unaccompanied minors from countries other than Mexico and Canada can be deported more quickly and sending the National Guard to the border.” 

Read the report here: 

Clients Need a ‘Bill of Rights’ argues CCM Publisher in HuffPo

California Courts Monitor publisher, Sara Warner, makes an argument for a “Client Bill of Rights” to protect clients in civil litigation today in the Huffington Post.

Sara Cocoran Warner, Founding Publisher of the California Courts Monitor

Sara Cocoran Warner, Founding Publisher of the California Courts Monitor

In her post, she states:

“We hear about personal injury cases being “bundled” with other cases to increase settlements, often without client knowledge. We hear that some attorneys distribute settlement money based on which client arrangements benefit them most. We hear about lawyers creating companies, like document courier services, that they use to drive up the “expenses” they can deduct from client payments…Hopefully, if true, these are rare events. A solid bill of rights might help keep them that way.”

Read the HuffPo piece here and join in the conversation.

CCM Publisher Warns Of ‘Perjury Pawns’

 
Writing in the Huffington Post, CCM Publisher Sara Warner notes that a recent bankruptcy case is rocking the world of civil asbestos litigation, one of the leading case-issues in California and nationwide. A federal judge’s order lists problems with the specific case, including “disappearing” of evidence and testimony that seems to contradict other sworn statements involving dozens of bankruptcy trusts. But, she notes, what about the victims?
 
Read the HuffPo piece here