The “Hog Wild” War by Robert A. Steadman
What’s it About?
What started as a basic business transaction turns into a firestorm, one that could hardly be foreseen and one that Steadman develops into an intriguing narrative for readers of all interests.
Are the executives at a multibillion-dollar company acting like pigs when they sacrifice the reputation and goodwill of their organization to squeeze out every last cent of profit from a small-time farmer?
The vice president for farm operations for one of the largest feed companies in the world shakes hands with Charlie Jackson, representing an “oral” agreement for the businessman-turned-local-farmer to set up a so-called parent farming operation for the farming giant’s new hog leasing program.
The locking of hands in lieu of a written contract between Charlie and Century Agricultural’s Jeremy Brand becomes the epicenter of controversy in author Robert A. Steadman’s new legal novel The “Hog Wild” War!, which recounts a real-life case Steadman tried as a lawyer in the early 1960s. He describes the book as a novel in order to take dramatic license with some of the court scenes.
A Hog Wild Case Goes to Court
Jackson, a successful manufacturing executive forced to give up his career after a debilitating flying accident, purchases a farm with his wife for its peace and tranquility. When his new life becomes too dull, he takes up with Century, with the promise of significant gains on his investment.
But when Jackson is informed in an impromptu phone call with Brand that Century had cancelled its initiative two years earlier and Jackson can’t recover anything due to the nature of the oral agreement and the Statute of Frauds, the battle is set in motion.
It was not only the impact but the attitude that appalled Jackson. “Century swatted me like a fly,” he later testified, “and, as one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world, has turned its back on my damage as though I don’t exist.” That damage was tabulated at about $140,000.
Steadman, a contented small-town country lawyer, reluctantly gets involved with the case and represents his friend Jackson. Jackson has built a career as a fighter and, as David, wants to give Goliath all it can handle. Steadman advises from the outset that chances for victory are slim, taking on a statute that has held for 200 years.
But Steadman has a trick or two up his sleeve, and stumbles upon a doctrine that in the end will provide his only chance.
Business Transaction Turns Firestorm
Readers immerse themselves inside the mind of Steadman as he scours law books in search of a “Holy Grail.” They get an up-close peek into his research, his thinking, his theories and his frustrations. At times they will feel his hopelessness but devotion to being there for a friend even though they may be on a fruitless journey.
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Legal Novel Draws Inspiration from Real-Life “Hog Wild” Case from the 60s
