The eight people who filed the lawsuit will be splitting a court award of $102,400, far lower than the hundreds of millions awarded in the previous three cases.
While the court awarded hundreds of millions, Smithfield’s actual fines will be far less because North Carolina law puts a cap on fines.
It does, however, allow up to three times the initial award in punitive damages. They have yet to be established for this fourth case.
There are a total of 26 nuisance lawsuits filed against Murphy Brown hog farms.
Smithfield is the largest hog-farming and pork-packing company in the United States, but is owned by a Chinese company.
