Judy’s Family Farm “Cage-Free” Eggs Class Action Lawsuit

By Sarah Mirando | October 8, 2012

Category: Legal News

By Sarah Pierce

Judy's Family Farm Eggs Animal-friendly consumers will pay more to purchase eggs from free-range chickens not raised in cages, prompting some companies to lie about the real conditions their chickens are raised in. That’s the allegation raised in a recent class action lawsuit against Petaluma Egg Farm, which produces and markets cage-free eggs under the brand name Judy’s Family Farm Eggs.

Petaluma Egg Farm also produces eggs under the brands Uncle Eddie’s Cage Free Eggs and Rock Island Fertile Brown Eggs, as well as for Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday Value brand and Organic Valley.

Lead Plaintiff Camilla Glover allege in the cage-free egg class action lawsuit that she purchased Judy’s Family Farm Eggs because they are advertised as coming from chickens raised “free of cages,” and because product packaging misled her into believing the chickens roam free “in a bucolic environment that is reminiscent of days gone by.”

Different versions of the packaging state that “the hens that produce these eggs are raised free of cages and can ‘run, scratch and play’ in the fresh air of Sonoma Valley’” and that the hens have “access to the outdoors and enjoy large communal areas with natural ventilation and sunlight,” the class action lawsuit says.

The truth, Glover alleges in the cage-free egg class action lawsuit, is that the chickens actually spend their entire lives in “modern, barren industrial sheds with no grassy fields and no outdoor access.”

Petaluma Egg Farm has engaged in a “classic form of unfair competition” and fraud, the class action lawsuit says, all because it knows that consumers will pay a higher price for cage-free or organic eggs.

Glover notes in the Petaluma Egg Farm class action lawsuit that when the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act was on the ballot as Proposition 2, the owner of Petaluma Egg Farm told the San Francisco Chronicle that he opposed the measure because it would require him to purchase “four to five times more land” if the proposition passed, which would “kill my business.”

Glover is seeking restitution and punitive damages for a proposed class of similar consumers who purchased deceptively advertised “cage-free eggs” from Petaluma Egg Farm. She is alleging unfair competition, false advertising and violation of the Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

“Consumers who care about the welfare of egg-laying hens have been deceived,” says Stephen Wells, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, which joins Glover in bringing the false advertising class action lawsuit against Petaluma Egg Farm and its owner, Steven Mahrt. “People who are willing to pay a premium for Judy’s Eggs have a right to know the truth about the eggs they purchase.”

Glover and the ALDF are represented by the legal firm Fazio/Micheletti LLP.