Purdue Farms has once again failed to quash a lawsuit filed by two North Carolina ohicken contract growers’ who allege the company retaliated against them for their role in crtitizing the company.
The way chicken processors deal with contract growers has been the subject of many criticisms including documentary films such as Morgan
Spurlock’s Super Sizer Me 2.
The federal judge rejected Perdue Farms’ constitutional challenge to Labor Department whistleblower proceedings
Judge Louise Flanagan dismissed Perdue’s claims in closely related cases involving Fairmont-area growers Craig Watts and Rudy Howell. The ruling came more than a year after a judge denied Perdue’s requests for preliminary injunctions.
Watts and Howell had filed whistleblower complaints alleging Perdue retaliated against them after they raised public concerns about the company’s poultry growing practices. Watts’ complaint stemmed from actions taken after he publicized animal welfare concerns in 2014, while Howell’s case followed the termination of his grower contract in 2020 after he invited advocates to observe and film conditions on his farm.
Perdue had sought to block the Labor Department’s administrative proceedings, arguing they violated multiple constitutional provisions, including the Seventh Amendment and Articles I, II and III of the Constitution, as well as the Fifth Amendment.
Flanagan rejected those arguments, ruling that most of Perdue’s claims failed on the merits. She dismissed one claim and parts of another without prejudice for lack of standing, but otherwise sided with the Labor Department and the growers.
The judge said the Food Safety Modernization Act’s whistleblower process did not violate Perdue’s jury trial rights and that the company had not shown compensable harm from the administrative law judge removal protections it challenged. She also found Perdue lacked standing to pursue some of its due process and nondelegation arguments.
The order granted summary judgment motions filed by Watts, Howell and federal defendants, denied Perdue’s summary judgment motions and directed the clerk to close both federal court cases.
The decision left the underlying Labor Department whistleblower proceedings intact.
Purdue Farms is a family-owned business.
