Indiana law gives Hoosiers the right to bring a lawsuit to protect themselves and their properties from a nuisance defined as “whatever is injurious to health, indecent, offensive to the senses, or an obstruction to the free use of property so as essentially to interfere with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property.” Ind. Code § 32-30-6-6.

Indiana also has a Right to Farm Act (Ind. Code § 32-30-6-9) which protects all agricultural operations, including farmers, with absolute immunity from nuisance lawsuits except in very narrow circumstances. Indeed, no other Indiana business or industry enjoys such broad protection from nuisance lawsuits as that afforded to farmers under Indiana’s Right to Farm Act. HB 1091 does nothing to amend or change this existing, broad protection.

Proponents of HB 1091 contend that it will “give farmers a legal defense” to such suits. Proponents also assert that HB 1091 “applies to situations where new housing developments are put in next to long established farming operations” and “essentially tells a neighbor who complains about a farming operation, the nuisance did not come to you, you came to the nuisance. If you don’t like it, it is your fault for moving here.” This suggested interpretation of the bill is not plausible. The language of HB 1091 simply and plainly states that it would require a trial court to impose the defendant’s costs of litigation and attorney fees on a plaintiff who brings a nuisance lawsuit against a CAFO that is found to be frivolous. There is no mention in the proposed legislation that it applies only to people who move from urban to agricultural areas and then bring such suits. Rather, that is the policy behind already existing law and the very purpose of Indiana’s Right to Farm Act.

Why is HB 1091 Unnecessary?

• Indiana already has a Right to Farm Act that protect agricultural operations, including CAFOs, with special immunity from nuisance lawsuits;
• Indiana law already empowers courts to impose the defendant’s costs of litigation and attorney fees on plaintiffs who file frivolous lawsuits;
• Indiana lawyers are already prohibited from filing frivolous lawsuits by a code of professional ethics; and
• In the last decade, only ten nuisance suits have been brought against factory farms and not one was thrown out for being “frivolous, groundless, or maliciously filed.”

Learn more about HB 1091 on our Bill Watch site, or visit our action center to send an email to your Senator!