Hudson Foods Suit Dismissed

A final chapter of the Hudson Foods story has officially closed. And it’s a chapter neither founder Red Hudson nor Tyson Foods Inc., which purchased Hudson Foods in 1998, cares to rehash.

A $15 million class-action lawsuit filed in October 1997 by Little Rock law firm Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates was finally dismissed March 16 by Judge Chris Piazza in Little Rock circuit court.

Bob Still, a senior partner with Bassett Law Firm in Fayetteville, represented Tyson in the case. Tyson was liable for all claims against Hudson Foods.

Tyson legal experts confirmed through spokesman Ed Nicholson that “the dismissal of the Hudson legal action on summary judgment does bring to a close all legal matters related to the e. coli recall.”

The suit was filed following Hudson’s announced recall of beef patties, the largest recall in U.S. food industry history. The e. coli bacteria had been detected in ground beef coming from Hudson’s plant in Columbus, Neb. A number of people in Little Rock claimed they had contracted the e. coli bacteria.

Later, nine cases of e. coli were reported in the Denver area and the Colorado Department of Health declared it an outbreak. Hudson was charged and later acquitted of criminal acts of misleading the USDA.

The USDA said about 25 million pounds of ground beef was recalled, but that only about 10 million was recovered. That figure was disputed, but Cauley Geller Bowman & Coates filed a claim based on $1 per pound of ground beef not recovered, contending Hudson received profits from that beef.

Still said every individual who purchased the recalled meat and requested a refund was refunded.

The USDA’s media assault on Hudson led to its sale, something former U.S. Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.) called a “tragedy.”

Red Hudson founded the company in Rogers in 1972 after spending 26 years with Ralston Purina. Hudson Foods had $1.7 billion in sales during its last year of operation before selling to Tyson for 5,885,958 shares of Tyson stock and $82 million cash.

Hudson now owns Hudson & Associates, a finance company based in Rogers that is involved in poultry operations in Poland.