IOWA CITY, Iowa – A jury awarded Hormel Foods $4 million in a lawsuit against a warehouse operator for failing to protect Hormel’s products from floodwaters, according to local news reports.

The jury found that Crystal Distribution Services, Inc. failed to keep its facilities clean, failed to keep products stored at the correct temperature and failed to pay Hormel for losses.

Floodwaters from the Cedar River flowed into the basement of the warehouse and damaged the refrigeration system. The US Department of Agriculture ordered the products destroyed. Hormel blamed Crystal for the loss and filed a lawsuit in 2009.