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Judge Dismisses Hickmans Family Farms' Claim Asking Court To Declare If Egg Farm Is Nuisance

 Hickmans Family Farms in Buckeye
Casey Kuhn/KJZZ
The sign outside of Hickmans Family Farms in Buckeye, Arizona.

A judge has dismissed a request filed in court by Hickmans Family Farms that the court decide if its 4 million-hen farm in Tonopah is a nuisance or not. 

At oral arguments earlier this month, Judge Janice Crawford took action on several pre-trial proceedings on a case locals have brought against the Hickmans egg ranch.

Crawford denied motions from Hickmans to declare whether its causing emotional distress to locals and to keep company documents in the case confidential.

She deliberated longer on whether to throw out Hickmans’ counter lawsuit against locals.

Hickmans asked for the court to decide if they are or are not a nuisance, legally, to stop future lawsuits. The locals’ lawyers argued that would have a chilling effect and asked the court to dismiss it. And judge Crawford, after a week of deliberation, did dismiss it.

Casey Kuhn was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2015 to 2019.