A federal judge ruled that Pilgrim’s Pride could not escape a lawsuit over a nuisance complaint in Georgia.
According to court documents, Pilgrim’s Pride is among several defendants in a lawsuit alleging that companies did not properly dispose of waste material from processing plants. The lawsuit names IsoNova, Prime-Pak, Wilcorp, Victory Feed, and Benson’s as “generator defendants” in addition to Pilgrim’s Pride.
The lawsuit claims that Pilgrim’s Pride and the other generator defendants knew or should have known that the “hauler defendants” were improperly disposing of waste on the property of the “disposer defendants,” which was not a proper landfill.
The lawsuit alleges that all parties are responsible for knowing that disposing of the waste would negatively affect neighbors of the disposal property. The neighbors reported “consistent foul and noxious odors, abnormal swarms of flies and other invasive insects, noise from trucks, loss of well water use due to well water contamination, and foul and noxious odors.”
Grange, an insurance company, seeks a court declaration on whether the insurance policy issued to Benson’s covers the claims and damages in the underlying lawsuit. Pilgrim’s sought to be dismissed from the lawsuit, arguing that no justiciable case or controversy exists between itself and Grange and that Grange’s complaint fails to state a claim. The court disagreed.
“Pilgrim’s has an interest in the Underlying Lawsuit and the outcome of this action,” Judge C. Ashley Royal wrote. “Additionally, Grange has an interest in resolving all claims that Pilgrim’s might potentially assert in connection with the policy.”
