Suit settled; separate $29K judgment entered against former Jeannette hemp drying operation

A lawsuit filed by a Jeannette packaging company seeking damages for claiming its items were contaminated by a hemp drying facility has been settled.

Meanwhile, a $29,000 judgment against Patriot Shield Pennsylvania was filed by the state Department of Environmental Protection for air control violations related to the hemp drying process, according to court records.

No details are publicly available about the settlement. Attorney Lawrence Kerr, who represented FC Meyer Packaging, filed a document Friday requesting the civil matter be discontinued.

“It’s been resolved,” he said Wednesday, declining to elaborate.

Attorneys representing Patriot Shield, which operated the hemp drying facility, and Herzl Real Estate, owner of the property, did not respond to messages.

FC Meyer Packaging filed the suit in February 2020, claiming odors from the hemp facility permeated its storage space at the Thomas Avenue warehouse, contaminating recycled paperboard products, such as pizza boxes. Patriot Shield also leased space in the warehouse to dry hemp from farmers. Odor complaints started pouring into city offices in September 2019 from neighboring residents and FC Meyer, according to the suit.

Jeannette and the state Department of Environmental Protection ordered the company to cease operations. Patriot Shield did not get an occupancy permit from Jeannette before starting work and violated air quality rules, according to city and state officials. The DEP levied a $29,000 civil penalty Dec. 24, 2019, related to the air quality and other violations. Patriot Shield did not restart operations in 2020.

Patriot Shield has not paid anything on the fine, according to records filed in Westmoreland County by an attorney for the DEP in mid-March. The judgment includes the penalty plus interest and costs.

A letter sent to Patriot Shield in September indicated the company owes the state agency $152,000 for failing to provide a ventilation engineering report on the building in violation of a consent agreement, according to court filings.

Former workers reported Patriot Shield owed them paychecks. Several employees previously said they received letters from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Bureau of Labor Law Compliance. The bureau audited Patriot Shield and asked employees to sign and return a letter authorizing the bureau to “to take civil action to collect all wages and all penalty wages owed.”