Up & Coming Weekly

July 19, 2022

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM JULY 20 - 26, 2022 UCW 19 A Salisbury woman takes down the hog barons by D.G. MARTIN How did a Salisbury woman beat the powerful forces of Smithfield Foods, Inc. and its hog farming allies? As described in my column last week, Mona Lisa Wallace and her law firm won $32 million in verdicts against the Smithfield group for its nuisance damage to the homes and lives on properties near hog farms. In a letter promoting his new book, "Waste- lands; e True Story of Farm Country on Trial," for use in college and law school classes, the book's author, Corban Addison, explains how he learned about Wal- lace and her efforts. "ree years ago, a friend called me and told me a story that sounded al- most too good to be true. It was about a lawyer he knew, a woman named Mona Lisa Wallace from his home- town in North Carolina." Addison's Salisbury-connected friend is best-selling author John Hart, whose most recent novel is "e Unwilling." Addison continues, "In 2013, Mona took up the banner of a rural community 'down east,' as the locals call it, a community comprised of mostly Black people of modest means. Over the course of a genera- tion, that community had seen its ancestral land — as well as its air and water — degraded by pollution from factory farms tied to the world's larg- est hog producer, Smithfield Foods. ey had agitated for change, but the change never came. Not until Mona took Smithfield to court. "Her mass action required seven years to litigate. It sparked rallies in the streets, a firestorm on social me- dia, death threats to the lawyers, wit- ness intimidation and an attempt by the industry's bedfellows in the state legislature to modify the centuries-old definition of nuisance retroactively to prevent the lawsuits from ever reach- ing a jury. Notwithstanding these headwinds, Mona and her co-counsel persisted, bringing five cases to trial and winning five plaintiffs' verdicts." Of course, Wallace could not have done the whole thing by herself. Lawyers and paralegals interviewed people who had been impacted by the hog farming, mostly people whose homes were nearby, mostly in Duplin, Bladen, Pender and Sampson Coun- ties. ey did the research and drafted motions and briefs. And Wallace engaged a talented and energetic co-counsel, Mike Kaeske, a Texas law- yer with working class roots. Kaeske handled the trial witness presenta- tions, cross examinations and, most important, opening and closing argu- ments, for which he spent hundreds of hours in preparation and practice. All the work paid off in trials in a Federal District Court, but the defendant appealed the verdict to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Although one judge dissented, the panel of three judges, including conservative J. Harvie Wilkinson, voted to assure Smithfield's loss. Addison noted that Wilkinson, in a concurring opinion, wrote "with Mo- saic thunder," saying that the Smith- field group's "interference with their quiet enjoyment of their properties was unreasonable. It was willful, and it was wanton." For Smithfield, Addison writes, the ruling was a devastating blow. Its public relations team launched a preemptive strike in an attempt to staunch the bleeding. Its press release "then regurgitates the same warmed- over pablum that the hog barons have served up for more than a generation — that no one understands the indus- try, that all the negative media and lawsuits and jury verdicts are biased and unfair, that Smithfield cares about farmers, and that it is committed to feeding the world." But writes Addison, "e press release, however, is not just propagan- distic. It contains a nugget of news: 'We have resolved these cases through a settlement that will take into ac- count the divided decision of the court. Information about the terms of the settlement will not be disclosed.'" Unfortunately, the book ends on this note, leaving the reader to guess how much more Smithfield had to pay to each plaintiff and whether the settlement will significantly change Smithfield's methods. Still, the book has gained national attention, including a detailed review in the July 10 edition of e New York Times Book Review. Stay tuned. e hog wars are not over. LITERATURE D.G. MARTIN, PBS-NC's Bookwatch. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200. 2023 Community Directory 2023 Community Directory POCKET GUIDE POCKET GUIDE 2023 Community Directory 2023 Community Directory POCKET GUIDE POCKET GUIDE 2023 Community Directory POCKET GUIDE FREE to Residents, Businesses and Organizations throughout our Community Reserve your Full Page Ad NOW in the 2023 Pocket Guide. 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