Ruling From Bench, Calif. Appeals Judge Throws Out $2.3M Dole Verdict and Case
Ruling from the bench in a Los Angeles case, an appellate judge today voided a $2.3 million jury verdict and threw out a pesticide-exposure case against Dole Food Co., due to “deliberate and egregious misconduct” by Nicaraguan lawyers who recruited Central American banana workers as plaintiffs.
Due to the misconduct, the truth may never be known, said California Court of Appeal Judge Victoria Chaney. She found that the company and the court were victims of a massive fraud in which at least one American lawyer also participated, alleging that plaintiffs were sterile when they were not, according to the Associated Press and Bloomberg.
The dismissal drew immediate fire from lawyers for the plaintiffs, who contended in a press release (PDF) provided to the ABA Journal that the giant fresh-fruit producer had acted wrongfully in the case.
“Today, an American court held that bribed testimony, delivered in secret and sealed hearings against parties without notice or an opportunity to participate in the process, somehow reaches the level of clear and convincing evidence, ” says attorney Mark Sparks of Provost Umphrey, who is representing plaintiffs in similar cases against Dole, in the release.
The hard-fought case is part of a group of similar actions filed in the United States over the past two decades by some 16,000 Central American workers. They say they suffered injuries, including sterility, from the pesticide dibromochloropropane, or DBCP, and have sought redress from chemical companies that manufactured it and growers that used it.
Nicaraguan courts, meanwhile, have tended to side with the workers.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com (July 2007): “First Banana Workers Get US Court Trial”
ABAJournal.com (June 2009): “Dole Gets Legal Fees as Calif. Judge Details Attorneys’ Fraud on Court”
ABAJournal.com: “Filmmaker Says He Was Working Undercover for Plaintiffs Firm Suing Dole”
Associated Press: “Both sides allege fraud in Dole pesticide case”
