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A recent ruling by the Indiana State Court of Appeals involving Indiana’s Right to Farm Act is a clear victory for Indiana agriculture, according to the Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation (INAgLaw).

The case, decided April 22 by the appeals court, was brought against 4/9 Livestock LLC and Co-Alliance LLP, pork producers from Hendricks County who began operation in 2013. The lawsuit alleged nuisance and negligence, and it also challenged the constitutionality of Indiana’s right-to-farm statute.

INAgLaw was engaged in the case at both the trial and appeals court levels by filing amicus briefs in each court. INAgLaw’s briefs advised both courts of the value of Indiana’s right-to-farm statute to Indiana agriculture and detailed prior right-to-farm cases with similar fact patterns.

“Indiana Farm Bureau has worked diligently to ensure that Indiana has a strong right-to-farm statute that protects farmers from unwarranted nuisance suits,” said Randy Kron, IINFB president. “Farm Bureau created INAgLaw in 2005 to support the agricultural perspective in our courts, and we’re proud that the foundation played such an effective role in making sure our voice was heard.”

The right-to-farm law protects Indiana farms that operate in traditional agricultural locations and are not negligently operated. The statute is a farmer’s defense to nuisance suits. Significantly, under the law, the farm is allowed to change the type of operation from, for example, a dairy to a hog farm, or soybean field to turkey farm without losing protection.

“The Indiana Court of Appeals has handed down a decisive victory for Indiana agriculture and affirmed the strength of Indiana’s right-to-farm law,” said John Shoup, attorney and director of INAgLaw.

“In interpreting the statute, the court held that a farm does not need to prove its modern operation ‘would not have been a nuisance’ at the time the property was first used for agriculture. Here, the farm property was used for agriculture as early as 1941 and the neighbors began their non-farming uses sometime after that.”

The 2005 amendment to the act clearly states that converting from one agriculture use to another is not a statutorily significant change, Shoup explained, and the court held that the act applies. He added that the court summarily dismissed the plaintiff’s constitutional challenges.

According to Shoup, the plaintiffs have 45 days from the date of the ruling to petition to transfer the case to the Indiana Supreme Court. They have 30 days to file a petition if they want the appeals court to rehear the case.

The Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization established in 2005 by INFB. INAgLaw promotes a better understanding of legal issues facing Indiana agriculture through educational programming and support of precedent-setting litigation.