Ag Law in the Courts – Feedlots; Dicamba Drift; and Inadvertent Disinheritance

Overview

It’s been over two months since I last did a post surveying court action of interest to farmers and ranchers.  I owe readers a couple of those types of posts to catch up.  It’s not that the courts have been quiet.  They haven’t.  I have just been writing about other things – including top legal and tax developments of 2019.  So, for today’s post I take a look at a few recent developments in the courts – this time two court opinions each from Iowa and Missouri.  The issues involve livestock feeding facilities, Dicamba drift and disinheritance.

Ag law in the courts – that’s the topic of today’s post.

Time Limit for Suing a Livestock Facility on Nuisance Claims

Dvorak v. Oak Grove Cattle, L.L.C., No. 18-1624, 2019 Iowa App. LEXIS 743 (Iowa Ct. App. Aug. 7, 2019).

The plaintiffs owned property adjacent to the defendant’s cattle feedlot. The feedlot began operating in 2006 and was investigated in 2009 and 2013 by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) due to manure run-off issues. The IDNR required that the defendants take remedial action. In 2016 the plaintiffs sued for negligence, trespass, and nuisance. The plaintiffs claimed, "from approximately 2009 to the present there have been multiple occasions when manure from [the defendant’s] cattle lot has entered upon, and traversed over, [the plaintiffs’] property." The defendant countered with a claim for defamation, arguing that the plaintiffs made false statements about the feedlot and published it to third parties. The defendant moved for summary judgment arguing that the nuisance cause of action was barred by the five-year statute of limitations. The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment on the basis that the plaintiffs were claiming that the feedlot was a permanent nuisance from its inception in 2006.  Thus, the nuisance suit should have been brought within five years of that time, according to the defendant.  The plaintiffs did not make separate nuisance claims for each instance of runoff which would make their claims an intermittent nuisance.

On further review, the appellate court reversed and remanded. The only issue on appeal concerned the statute of limitations. The parties agreed that a five-year statute of limitations applied.  But, did it start to run from the time the feedlot was established, or upon each occurrence of manure runoff?  In other words, was the manure runoff a permanent nuisance or a continuing nuisance?  If the manure runoff constituted a permanent nuisance, the statute of limitations began to run in 2006 and would have expired in 2011. Conversely, If the manure runoff amounted to an intermittent nuisance, the statute of limitations would start upon each occurrence. The appellate court determined that the defendant failed to meet the burden of proof that the runoff was a permanent nuisance in order to sustain the motion for summary judgment. Permanence of a nuisance, the appellate court held, goes to the injury itself and the defendant did not show that the damage to the plaintiffs’ property could not be cleaned up or abated. Instead, the defendant relied upon the contention that the runoff from the feed lot was not temporary. The appellate court determined that he feedlot itself is a permanent nuisance but the runoff itself is a temporary nuisance. Thus, the plaintiffs’ suit was not time barred. 

CAFO Permit Properly Granted 

K Tre Holdings, LP v. Missouri Department of Natural Resources, No. SD35512, 2019 Mo. App. LEXIS 1146 (Ct. App. Jul. 26, 2019)

In early 2016, a farm applied for a "General Operating Permit" to operate a Class 1C poultry Confined Feeding Operation “CAFO” in southwest Missouri.  Later that year, the farm was issued a “State No-Discharge" CAFO operating permit. The plaintiff challenged the issuance before the Administrative Hearing Commission (ACH), and the ACH determined that the CAFO permit was issued in accordance with the applicable state law and regulations. In late 2017, the defendant (state Dept. of Natural Resources) affirmed. The plaintiff sued and that state appellate court affirmed. The appellate court noted that the farm provided a 2014 google map image with labels and setback distances marked. Other maps were also presented during the agency hearings and submitted as evidence. The appellate court determined that the defendant’s decision was supported by sufficient evidence. The maps provided the necessary information to determine whether the setback distance requirements had been satisfied. The appellate court also determined that the farm did not have to provide a copy of proposed building plans to obtain a building permit, and that the plaintiff could not challenge the ACH appointment of commissioners. 

Some Dicamba Drift Claims Proceed

Bader Farms, Inc. v. Monsanto Co., No. MDL No. 1:18md2820-SNLJ, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114302 (E.D. Mo. Jul. 10, 2019)

Dicamba drift issues have been in the news and the courts over the past couple of years.  In this case, the plaintiff claimed that his peach orchard was destroyed after the defendants (Monsanto and BASF) conspired to develop and market dicamba-tolerant seeds and dicamba-based herbicides. The plaintiff claimed that the damage to the peaches occurred when dicamba drifted to his peach orchard after being applied to neighboring fields. The plaintiff claimed that the defendants released the dicamba-tolerant seed with no corresponding dicamba herbicide that could be safely applied. As a result, farmers illegally sprayed an old formulation of dicamba herbicide that was unapproved for in-crop, over-the-top, use and was "volatile"  - meaning that it was highly likely to drift. While many cases had previously been filed on the dicamba drift issue, the plaintiff did not join the other litigation because it focused on damages to soybean crops.

Monsanto moved to dismiss the plaintiff’s claims that were based on failure to warn; negligent training; violation of the Missouri Crop Protection Act; civil conspiracy; and joint liability for punitive damages. BASF moved to dismiss those same claims except those for failure to warn. Monsanto argued that the failure to warn claims were preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act ("FIFRA"), but the plaintiff claimed that no warning would have prevented the damage to the peaches. The trial court determined that the plaintiff had adequately plead the claim and denied the motion to dismiss this claim. Both Monsanto and BASF moved to dismiss the negligent training claim, but the trial court refused to do so. However, the trial court did dismiss the claims based on the Missouri Crop Protection Act, noting that civil actions under this act are limited to “field crops” which did not include peaches. The trial court did not dismiss the civil conspiracy claim based on concerted action by agreement, but did dismiss the aiding and abetting portion of the claim because that cause of action is not recognized under Missouri tort law. The parties agreed to a separate jury determination of punitive damages for each defendant.

The saga continues. 

Inadvertent Disinheritance – Words Means Things

In re Trust Under the Will of Daubendiek, 929 N.W.2d 723 (Iowa Ct. App. 2019)

This case has an unfortunate (and, I believe, incorrect result).  It points out that sometimes courts are willing to strictly apply the law even in light of a potentially absurd result.  It also points out that lawyers drafting wills and trusts have to carefully consider the words that they use and how those words might be applied years later.  

Here, the testator created a will in 1942 which contained a trust. The trust had nine beneficiaries and specified that in the event of a named beneficiary’s death, the beneficiary’s interest would pass to the beneficiary’s “lawful bodily issue.” The testator died in 1948, and in 1956 one of the named beneficiaries (a grandson of the testator) adopted a child. The grandson died in 2016, and the adopted child (great-grandson of the testator) sought court confirmation that he and his descendants were the “lawful bodily issue” of the beneficiary for purposes of the trust. The trial court disagreed and granted summary judgment for the trustee, effectively disinheriting the great-grandson.

On further review, the appellate court affirmed. While the appellate court noted that Iowa law presumes that a testator intends to treat an adopted child in the same manner as a natural born child, this presumption does not apply when an intent to exclude the adopted child is shown in the will. The appellate court held that intent to exclude was present by the testator’s repeated use of “lawful bodily issue” after denoting every named trust beneficiary to describe who received that share of the trust upon a particular beneficiary’s death. The appellate court cited a 1983 Iowa Supreme Court opinion where that Court said that a similar phrase, “heirs of the body,” did not include adopted children. The appellate court concluded that there was no reasonable interpretation of the will/trust that allowed for an adopted child who is not a beneficiary’s “lawful bodily issue” to receive a share of the trust.

An expert on wills and trusts (and my law school professor on the same subject) testified that lawyers often use “legalisms” without the client providing express direction for such terminology.  As such, in his view, the phraseology of the will was ambiguous and created a genuine issue of material fact.  That would have bearing on the issue of the testator’s intent – the “polestar” or directing principle of construing a will.  But, the court refused to consider the professor’s point as being a legal argument concerning a legal issue – an opinion as to a legal standard.  As such, the court said it would not be considered.  But with that said, the court did consider it and still concluded that the will was clear and the great-grandson was to be disinherited. 

I take issue with the appellate court’s opinion.   The court read "lawful bodily issue" in a way that disinherited the great grandson without the testator specifically saying that is what he wanted to do.  Normally, disinheriting someone requires the testator’s clearly expressed intention.  Did the attorney in 1942 explain what the phrase “lawful bodily issue” meant to the testator and the effect that it possibly could have 74 years later?  Highly unlikely.  At a minimum the phrase created an ambiguity.   Also, the appellate court made no mention of the fact that under Iowa law, a legally adopted child is treated as blood relation (“lawful bodily issue”) of the adoptive parent(s) for purposes of intestacy. Thus, had the grandson involved died intestate, Iowa law would have treated the great grandchild as “lawful bodily issue.” The appellate court did not address this potentially absurd result of its opinion – making disinheritance of a great grandson dependent on whether the great grandson’s father died without a will.

Words mean things – sometimes unintended things. 

Conclusion

I will do another post on more developments in the courts soon.