No new judge for cancer lawsuits
Posted on Friday, August 29, 2008
A judge will not appoint another judge to preside over lawsuits filed by Prairie Grove area residents alleging poultry producers used chicken feed that led to cancer-causing litter.
Picking another judge in this case would be a waste of time, according to the order signed Thursday by 4 th Judicial Circuit Judge Kim Smith. A new judge is also unnecessary because the case does not involve a conflict of interest, the order states.
"This court has made hundreds of rulings on numerous motions filed by the parties in this case and has spent countless hours reading briefs and highly technical documents," the order states. "Another judge would have to spend hundreds of hours to be acquainted with the issues and information in the case."
Following a three-week trial in 2006, a jury took 21 minutes to reach its verdict in favor of feed additive maker Alpharma. The poultry companies were dismissed from that case.
However, an Arkansas Supreme Court decision in May ruled poultry producers can go to trial in the lawsuit, reversing Smith's granting of a pretrial motion that eliminated poultry producers as defendants.
Nine similar lawsuits involving a total of 138 individual cases have already been filed against Alpharma Inc. and Northwest Arkansas poultry companies, according to court records.
A suit filed by Mary and Michael Green Sr. against the poultry producers is scheduled for trial next year from April 30 through May 22.
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