The ongoing poultry litigation between the state of Oklahoma and eleven poultry companies with operations in the Illinois River watershed has “spawned”, according to Robert J. Smith’s article for Arkansas Online, additional lawsuits against “more than 160 Oklahoma cities, counties, public utilities, golf courses and other businesses,” currently sits in the waiting wings.The lawsuit, in which the Oklahoma alleges that eleven poultry companies with operations in the watershed polluted the watershed through the spreading of animal waste on adjacent lands as a fertilizer, began its trial segment last Thursday. According to the article by Smith,
“The poultry companies argue that ‘third-party defendants’ could be responsible for some of the pollution being blamed on poultry farming. . . . If Oklahoma wins and the poultry companies are forced to pay financial penalties, the poultry companies must decide at some point whether to pursue their lawsuit against the so-called third-party defendants identified in a 189-page complaint.”
Park Medearis Jr., an attorney representing Tahlequah, OK, believes the companies cannot prove their allegations against the third-party defendants, and in fact, only identified these parties to ‘“try to harass the smaller parties into some sort of settlement or to raise enough concern and get someone else to intervene.”’
Oklahoma is basing their current lawsuit against the companies on the theory that their fertilizer applications polluted the Illinois River watershed through runoff, and when this happened the companies allegedly violated state and federal law, according to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Responding to these allegations, the companies “asked the U.S. District Court at Tulsa to involve more than 160 other potential sources of pollution on the Oklahoma side of the two-state watershed. The companies argued that, as third party defendants, these 160 other potential polluters could be partially responsible.
In August 2006, Oklahoma and attorneys for the third-party defendants successfully argued that these additional defendants should not be a part of the case. None of the third-party defendants are from Arkansas, despite the majority of the poultry business affected by the lawsuit are from the Arkansas.Many of the companies have given no indication whether they will pursue a suit against the 160 third-party defendants.
Among those who would be brought in if such a suit was pursued is a golf course, a guest ranch, sewer utilities, other farming operations, private sewage systems, gated communities and others. It looks like we will have to wait for the outcome of the original suit before we know the fate of potential third-party suits.
To read the Robert J. Smith article click here. (subscription may be required).
Posted:09/28/09
