DALLAS – JBS USA LLC and Swift Pork Co. have successfully resolved a 10-year dispute over Swift’s use of a parking lot near JBS’ pork processing plant in the Butchertown area of Louisville, Kentucky.
On Jan. 12, the Louisville Board of Zoning Adjustment (BOZA) granted Swift a conditional use permit to use the lot as a staging area for trucks awaiting pick up by grocery stores and other buyers of Swift brand processed pork.
Among other improvements, Swift has agreed to install clean combustion technology on trucks in the staging area; install a tall wooden fence around the lot; add a landscaped buffer zone; and refrain from operating within 100 feet of homes between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The plant’s use of the lot has been in dispute since 2006, when the Butchertown Neighborhood Association Inc. and individual residents filed a lawsuit against Swift and the Louisville/Jefferson County Metro Government, which leased the parking lot to Swift. Neighbors complained about noise and diesel emissions from truck engines, among other issues.
The lawsuit sat mostly dormant until 2013, when the plaintiffs amended their filing to include Swift’s parent company, JBS USA, as a defendant. Around the same time, Swift and JBS brought in their longtime litigation counsel Clayton Bailey from the Dallas complex litigation boutique Bailey Brauer PLLC to serve as co-counsel with fellow attorneys Glenn Price and Bart Greenwald from the Louisville office of Frost Brown Todd LLP.
JBS and Swift defeated the lawsuit in March 2015, but still needed BOZA to grant its conditional use permit, which happened in January.
“This has been a lengthy and complex dispute,” says Mr. Bailey. “But my clients weren’t going to back down, nor should they have. They have always been, and will continue to be, good citizens of Butchertown.”
Bailey Brauer PLLC is committed to providing efficient, effective legal representation in high-stakes litigation. Led by experienced trial and appellate lawyers Clayton Bailey and Alex Brauer, the firm focuses on complex commercial litigation, agribusiness, appeals, and class and collective actions. For more information, please contact Bailey Brauer today.