Hog producers file suit against two packers

Hog producers are filing a class-action lawsuit against two big packing plants. Omaha attorney Claudia Stringfield firm says farmers charge that the South Sioux City Tyson plant — formerly IBP — and John Morrell and company unfairly made a deduction from the payments to farmers for animals sold for slaughter. The basis of the complaint is the allegation that Morrell and Tyson unfairly are deducting insurance fees for “hog death loss” without having the broker-dealer licenses that would allow them to do that. Animals that get sick, hurt, or die in transit are a loss for farmers or packing plants, and it’s not always clear which will suffer that financial loss. The lawyer’s going through invoices to find out how much was charged to farmers, and how the cost of “death-loss” insurance was calculated.They’re petitioning for class-action status, with three plaintiffs so far — as they say the case could involve as many as five-thousand farmers in Nebraska and a similar number in Iowa. Farmers Dick and Lori Sokolowski of Holstein, Iowa, are part of the suit over charges the packers levied since 1999.The suit combines Sokolowski versus Tyson, Hoefling vs. John Morrell, and Kincaid versus Morrell, and the Stringfield says that third case is the basis for asking that all Nebraska producers join the Iowa farmers in the suit. The case will be tried in Iowa, since it was filed in that state’s court system. The plaintiffs just filed it, so no court hearings are scheduled yet. Stringfield’s employer, the Omaha-based Domina law firm, goes to trial next week in a separate suit by cattle producers against Tyson, that charges the packer controls prices through a “captive supply system”