Organic farmer's lawsuit says he was evicted after doing $500,000 of work
In the northwest corner of Duke Farms in Hillsborough are 120 acres of fenced in pasture and mowed fields, ready for the kind of organic cattle and hog farm Mark and Linda Faille have run for more than 20 years.
But the fields and barns are empty, and the miles of fencing and an agricultural well -- paid for with $80,000 of federal grants - sit dormant, for now.
The Failles say they invested about $500,000 in cleaning up and restoring that corner of Duke Farms beginning in 2012 with the promise that they could house and graze a herd of 125 cattle and 500 hogs on the expansive property. They believed they would be able to recoup their investment as they sold the animals for meat and replenished the stock.
But just as they were about to go into production in the spring of 2014, they were kicked off the property by Michael Catania, Duke Farms executive director.
"All he said was the board (of directors) didn't want us there," Mark Faille said. "That was it."
In a lawsuit filed in Somerset County Superior Court last month, the Failles claim the Duke Farms Foundation and Catania are "in breach of verbal and written promises" and are asking for undetermined compensation.
Calls to Catania were referred to Kristin Roth-Schrefer, the communications director of the parent Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in Manhattan.
"This is a contractual dispute with a for-profit agricultural corporation regarding their use of land at Duke Farms," she said in an email response. "Proper land management and animal care are central to Duke Farms' mission, and accordingly, we expect to prevail in court. The plaintiff's claims are without merit."
Last year, Duke Farms prevailed in a court case brought by locals after the foundation decided to tear down the mansion where tobacco and electric power magnate James B. Duke and his daughter, socialite and philanthropist, Doris Duke, lived. The destruction of the mansion angered many people in the area who had direct dealings with Doris Duke, who called the Hillsborough estate her primary home until her death in 1993.
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Mark Faille's side of this story goes like this:
Faille said he was approached by Tim Taylor, the former Duke Farms executive director, and Paul Smith, the former stewardship director, in 2011. Neither remain with the organization.
According to the lawsuit, Failles was asked to consider bringing part of his operation to Duke Farms because it fit the foundation's "stated mission of environmental stewardship."
The Failles began Simply Grazin' - an organic livestock business -- in 1997 in Hopewell and now have farms in New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Among Simply Grazin's biggest customers are Whole Foods and the FreshDirect online grocery service.
"They (the Duke executives) were looking for someone to do a grazing program for them," Faille said. "Frankly, I felt pretty special. I mean, this was Duke Farms."
"We spent $10,000 to do the fencing, because we had to show we could be operational to apply for the federal grants (to fence off more property)," Faille said.
The agreement Simply Grazin' signed with Duke Farms in 2012 was good through at least Dec. 31, 2017.
Mark Faille admitted he signed an agreement that had little protection.
"It said they could throw us off the property at any time for any reason," he said, "but I trusted them. I didn't see what incentive they would have to get rid of us."
The lawsuit says the Failles renourished 120 acres of fields that were "dilapidated and infertile" and fixed barns that were in "disrepair" and removed "junk and other garbage ... littered about the property."
The latter was no small job.
"We took out 20 or 30 dumpsters of junk. There was a (truck) trailer back there we got rid of," Faille said. "That land was used as a dump."
Faille said all the plumbing and electrical wiring had been stripped out of the barns and outbuildings and the windows were mostly broken.
"For a foundation with that kind of money, it was shocking, to tell you the truth," he said.
While cleaning up the property, Faille applied for two grants through the federal Department of Agriculture's Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). The grants help livestock farmers protect water quality by providing funds to pay for fencing that keeps cattle away from natural streams. The grants also fund agricultural wells for watering the animals and to help pay for environmentally-sound soil nutrient programs.
Simply Grazin' was awarded $80,000 in grants, with the stipulation that the business be maintained for a specific period of time. Simply Grazin's contract time periods were 15 and 20 years.
In support of Simply Grazin's application, Catania submitted a letter that said Faille "will have control of the property for the period of EQIP/AMA (Agricultural Management Assistance) contract" and he had "permission to install and maintain for the practice lifespan (15-20 years) all permanent vegetative and/or structural practices on the Duke Farms property."
The lawsuit points out Duke Farms would not have been eligible for those EQIP grants because it is not a livestock farming operation.
And this is where things get ... funny.
Faille says Catania approached him early last year and asked him to transfer the grant money to the Duke Foundation.
"He convinced me it would be best if the foundation had the money to pay for the improvements and get things rolling," Faille said.
But once the fencing was up, the well was operational and the buildings cleaned out, Catania kicked Simply Grazin' out.
"We're a big operation," said Faille, who has close to 500 Yorkshire pigs and 325 Black and Red Angus cattle on other Somerset County farms.
"They knew that. They knew we were a for-profit operation.
"Was I dumb for trusting him? Maybe. But I think this was his plan all along. To get me to do the work and get the government money, and bring in a smaller operation."
Faille said he heard another organic livestock farmer was coming in with five heads of cattle, but there was no evidence of that on the property Faille restored as of late last week.
Meanwhile, Faille's attorneys from the Princeton office of Fox Rothschild, said they're looking into the laws surrounding agriculture grants.
"He (Catania) wrote a letter to the government saying Simply Grazin' would be there for the duration of the contract," said attorney James Young. "Now they (Duke Farms) have the money and our client has been evicted. We're looking into the ramifications of that."
Mark Di Ionno may be reached at mdiionno@starledger.com. Follow The Star-Ledger on Twitter @StarLedger and find us on Facebook.