Trial ordered over poultry-litter cancer claim
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
The Arkansas Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a trial for a case in which a Prairie Grove family claims poultry producers used chicken feed that led to litter that caused cancer.
The decision overturned a Washington County Circuit Court order that had granted summary judgment in favor of the companies.
Michael “Blu” Green was diagnosed with leukemia in 1999. In 2003, his parents, Mary and Michael Green Sr., sued poultry producers and feed companies, including Tyson Foods.
Farmers used arsenic-laden chicken litter as fertilizer in local fields, including one by Blu’s school, and it caused the son’s leukemia, the Greens contended.
Other plaintiffs’ similar claims are pending in Washington County Circuit Court.
The companies contended that the Greens and the other families can’t prove that the feed caused what the lawsuit calls a “cancer cluster” around Prairie Grove.
The circuit court agreed, granting summary judgment to the companies and excluding some expert testimony concerning arsenic levels in the dust and air at Prairie Grove.
But Judge Kim Smith denied summary judgment to Alpharma, a feed company. In a resulting September 2006 trial, a Washington County jury sided with Alpharma.
The 37-page Supreme Court opinion Thursday by Justice Jim Gunter said that the Greens had demonstrated through 61 exhibits “a genuine issue” on what caused their son’s leukemia, meriting being examined at trial.
In analyzing whether the Greens had met a four-prong legal test for going forward, the Supreme Court said that viewing the evidence “in the light most favorable to the Greens, we conclude that the Greens have satisfied the fourth prong by showing that the poultry-producers ’ chicken litter probably caused Green’s injury.” The court also upheld the circuit court’s decision to exclude some expert testimony regarding arsenic in the dust and air. Federal and state law grant “considerable leeway” in deciding the reliability of expert testimony, the court said.
The other poultry producers are George’s Farms, Simmons Foods and Peterson Farms.
The case at the Supreme Court is 07-382, Mary E. Green and Michael B. Green, individually and as parents, next friends and natural guardians of Michael Green during his minority; and Michael Green, individually v. Alpharma Inc., Alpharma Animal Health Co.; George’s Farms, Inc; George’s Processing, Inc.; Peterson Farms, Inc.; Simmons Foods, Inc.; and Tyson Foods, Inc.
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