Following an Astounding Summary Judgment Win, Winston Secures Three Favorable Class Settlements in US$52+B Broiler Chicken Litigation

Represent Norman W. Fries, Inc. d/b/a Claxton Poultry Farms in a series of 15+ antitrust class actions consolidated in the Northern District of Illinois and brought by plaintiffs who allege that Claxton and the nation’s other largest poultry producers conspired to fix the price of broiler chickens in a scheme from 2008 to 2016 that raised the price for broiler chickens by artificially reducing supply.

In July 2023, we delivered Claxton a resounding victory when Judge Thomas Durkin granted Claxton’s motion for summary judgment. Although the court found that there was a triable issue of fact concerning the existence of a price-fixing conspiracy within the chicken industry—and thus denied the summary judgment motions of 11 of Claxton’s co-defendants—the court held, as a matter of law, that if there was a conspiracy, Claxton played no part in it. This ruling further exonerates Claxton and comes less than a year after we successfully defeated criminal indictments brought against Claxton and two of its employees in the District of Colorado.

The wins enabled Winston to negotiate extremely favorable walk-away settlements in 2024 and 2025 with the three classes (each agreeing to forego appeal of final judgment for Claxton in exchange for Claxton not pursuing the classes’ payment of its litigation costs).

In re Broiler Chicken Antitrust Litig., Case No. 1:16-cv-08637, U.S.D.C., N.D. Ill.; Individual executives’ action: U.S.A. v. Penn, et al., Case No. 20-cr-00152, U.S.D.C., D. Colo.; and Companies’ action: U.S.A. v. Norman W. Fries, Inc., et al., Case No. 1:21-cr-00168, U.S.D.C., D. Colo.