GEORGETOWN, Del. (Legal Newsline) - The judge overseeing a long-running, acrimonious nuisance suit over a Delaware chicken farm rejected the latest attempt to reverse his rulings on whether the case belongs in his court, saying the plaintiffs “would suffer serious prejudice from delay.”
The ruling by Delaware Superior Court Judge Craig Karsnitz allows plaintiffs to move ahead with a lawsuit seeking class-action status on behalf of property owners who claim they have been harmed by the smells and groundwater pollution from the Millsboro poultry plant owned by Mountaire Farms of Delaware.
The litigation has been mired for two years in disputes over whether the Delaware state court has jurisdiction over Arkansas-based Mountaire Corp., which says it has no operations in Delaware and doesn’t exercise control over the operations of the Millsboro plant. Judge Karsnitz levied $28,000 in sanctions against the company in June for improperly redacting documents including internal records and board meeting minutes the plaintiffs were seeking to prove Mountaire had control over the Delaware farm.
Judge Karsnitz denied Mountaire’s motion to dismiss the case in January, saying the company raised valid questions about jurisdiction and whether the plaintiffs were seeking injunctive relief that must be pursued in Delaware’s Chancery Court, but that other claims belonged before him. In his most recent ruling, dated Nov. 16, the judge rejected Mountaire’s request to send his earlier order up to the Delaware Supreme Court for interlocutory review, saying the mid-course appeal “would place the entire schedule in jeopardy and delay resolution of the case.”
Interlocutory appeals are rarely granted because they are seen as delaying litigation over questions that can usually be resolved by appealing a final judgment.
Plaintiffs Gary and Anna-Marie Cuppels sued in June 2018, naming Mountaire Corp. and its Delaware entities. In February 2019 the court ordered limited discovery to determine if it should proceed as a class action and whether Montaire had sufficient contacts with Delaware to give the court jurisdiction.
After a stay to allow for an unsuccessful attempt at mediation the judge ordered Montaire to hand over documents including financial records and board meeting minutes relating to the formation of Montaire Farms of Delaware. The two sides then launched into a “war of letters,” the judge wrote in a June ruling, with Mountaire producing redacted records and the plaintiffs demanding unredacted documents
The case has been complicated by the fact the Delaware Dept. of Natural Resources and Environmental Control sued and negotiated a settlement with Mountaire in 2019. The Cuppels then served a subpoena on Delaware to turn over documents relating to the Millsboro plant, which the state tried to quash. Judge denied the state’s motion, the state filed an interlocutory appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, which refused to hear it.
In his Nov. 16 order, Judge Kasnitz criticized Mountaire for its legal tactics. The company may yet prevail on its jurisdictional arguments, but must provide the evidence plaintiffs are seeking and wait for the court to rule.
“Defendants face serious, enormous claims,” the judge wrote, and they have “a right to litigate them fully."
“Defendants’ actions exhibit a flavor of delay for delay’s sake,” he concluded.