Food & Agriculture Team Achieves Victory for Hormel Foods Corporation in Warehouse Flooding Case

On April 16, 2012, a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa awarded Hormel Foods Corporation its full damage request of $4 million against Crystal Distribution Services, Inc., an Iowa cold storage warehouse operator, for food products lost during the 2008 flood.

Hormel filed the lawsuit in 2009 after a 2008 flood in Waterloo, Iowa, caused the warehouse refrigeration system to fail, damaging millions of pounds of Hormel products held in the lower level. The United States Department of Agriculture ordered the products destroyed. The jury ruled that Crystal Distribution Services breached its contract with Hormel by failing to keep facilities clean, to store products at specified temperatures and to pay Hormel for its losses.

Jacob Bylund, Ryan Howell and Kim Walker of the food and agriculture industry team at Faegre Baker Daniels LLP represented Hormel Foods in this case.

Based in Austin, Minn., Hormel Foods Corporation is a multinational manufacturer and marketer of food and meat products for consumers worldwide.