With latest rulings, litigation over odors from Mount Prospect factory moves toward trial

A Cook County judge has rejected a company’s effort to end litigation brought by Mount Prospect and Des Plaines over noxious odors coming from its animal feed factory.

Judge Thomas More Donnelly on Tuesday denied Prestige Feed Products’ motion for a judgment without a trial in the case brought by Mount Prospect. The judge also turned down Prestige’s motion to remove Des Plaines as a party to the litigation.

Donnelly ruled that several of the issues raised by Prestige would be more properly decided by a jury.

Prestige, 431 Lakeview Court in Mount Prospect, has been engaged in litigation with the village for months over unpleasant odors from its factory.

In court Tuesday, attorneys for the village and Prestige haggled over the standard for determining excessive odors. Prestige attorney Riccardo DiMonte, argued for an objective standard based on measurements from a device such as a Scentometer.

Mount Prospect attorney Isaiah Fishman countered that such measurements may reveal the strength of the odor, but not how offensive it is.

“Then we get into the question of do the neighbors like the smell of a bakery,” DiMonte responded. “It’s going to turn into the character of the smell when it’s really the strength of the smell.”

Donnelly said the law uses a lot of terms that are not capable of scientific determination, such as reasonableness.

“That is for the jury to decide,” he said.

The judge allowed Des Plaines to remain a part of the case because several of the factory’s neighbors who say they are impacted by the smell are in the city’s Longford Glen subdivision.

Prestige has until Feb. 7 to answer Des Plaines’ complaints.