Dole Food Company, Inc., and The Dow Chemical Company Face A First Time Jury
October 2, 2007
Verdict In A Sterility Lawsuit Filed By 12 Foreign Banana Plantation Workers For Exposure to the Chemical Pesticide called DBCP. Closing Arguments Are Expected to Begin on October 11, 2007, In Los Angeles Superior Court Final closing arguments in Tellez, et al., v. Dole Food Company, et al, first sterility case amongst thousands of other similar sterility cases awaiting adjudication in the United States from foreign Plaintiffs plantation workers against Defendants U.S. multinational corporations, is set to begin on October 11, 2007. After final arguments, the case will be submitted to the jury for
deliberation and decision. Several thousand more claims by foreign plantation workers with similar sterility complaints are pending before the same judge, Honorable Victoria G. Chaney of the Los Angeles Superior Court. Thousands more are awaiting their day in court in other countries.
Banana Farm Worker Testifies In Pesticide Trial
August 2007, The Associated Press
A worker from Honduras has testified in a Los Angeles courtroom that he and his wife tried for a decade to have children but failed to conceive after he went to work on a banana plantation where the pesticide DBCP was used. Espinoza is one of a dozen banana farm workers who are suing Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Standard Fruit Co., now part of Dole, charging that exposure to DBCP -- the abbreviation for dibromochloropropane -- in the 1970s made them sterile. The lawsuit also said that Dow Chemical Co. "actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity."
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Dole Pesticide Trial Begins
July 2007, www.reefertrends.com
This case marks the first time that an American company has gone before a jury to face accusations that a pesticide poisoned workers in plantations abroad. The chemical in question is nemagon (chemical name: Dibromochloropropane), banned in the US since the late 1970's.
Nearly three decades of legal struggle has come to a head in a Los Angeles courtroom as a trial began in a case pitting field hands against two of Americas largest corporations. Since the 1980s, attorneys have filed civil lawsuits on behalf of more that 30,000 workers on plantations in Africa, Latin America and the Philippines. Although some of those lawsuits have settled, none has been presented to jurors. Twelve workers have alleged sterilisaton in Thursday's case, though thousands of additional workers in Nicaragua are preparing to sue. The case is also one of the few in which an American company has been sued in the US for alleged damages occurring overseas.
Former Banana Workers March Again To Managua; Los Angeles Court Case Goes Forward
May 2007
Two hundred banana plantation workers from the northwestern region of Nicaragua, sick from pesticide exposure, are again marching to Managua asking the government to support their fight to get compensation from foreign companies. The demonstrators are mostly elderly workers with precarious health due to their contact with the pesticide Nemagon. They began their march Sunday in Chichigalpa, 120km from Managua, and are advancing toward the capital, where they hope to arrive by June 1.
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Thirteen Banana Workers Get Partial Settlement In Nemagón Lawsuit
April 2007
Pending the almost-certain approval of a Los Angeles County judge, 13 former Nicaraguan banana workers will receive a total of $300,000 as a result of an out-of-court settlement in their lawsuit for damages caused from being exposed to the pesticide Nemagón (dibromochloropropane) such as sterility and other health problems. An attorney for the group, Juan Dominguez, made the announcement on April 15, during an activity in Chinandega, where the banana plantations were located. Some 1,500 former workers attended.
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Dole food company has announced it will obey an order from a judge in Texas to suspend talks with former banana workers in Nicaragua who are seeking an out-of-court settlement for damages caused by the pesticide Nemagon (which was used in the country's banana fields in the 1960s, 70s and 80s) while the Texas suit proceeds. Victorino Espinales, a leader of one of the principal groups of banana workers, said that the workers he represents are not involved in the court case in Texas. He said that the lawyers are afraid of a possible out-of-court settlement because all of their cases are bogged down and have come to nothing. Evidently, an out-of-court settlement would, if it were to happen, require all suits against Dole to be dropped.
Recent Events Make The Future Of The Nemagon Victims Unclear
On March 21 one of the best known banana workers' leaders, Victorino Espinola, appeared at a press conference with Michael Carter, Vice President of Dole Food Company (one of the four multinationals against which Nicaraguan workers are processing lawsuits), and members of the Nicaraguan government to announce they were attempting to reach an out-of-court agreement. In return for dropping all the lawsuits being processed by Nicaraguan workers against Dole and repealing Law 364 (the law which was passed in 2001 to support the Nemagon victims in legal cases against the multinationals), Dole would hand over a lump sum of money to the Nicaraguan workers whose health has been severely affected by exposure to Nemagon. Neither Espinales nor Carter mentioned any figures and the final details of the agreement have not yet been announced.
Nicaragua: U.S. Companies Continue To Evade Responsibility
The Californian Central District Judge Nora M. Manella has ruled "invalid" a Nicaraguan court ruling passed in 2003 in favour of 466 Nicaraguan former banana workers. This ruling, which a legal firm hired by the workers had presented before the US court in November 2003, orders the multinational company Shell Oil Company to pay US$489.4 million in compensation to the 466 Nicaraguans who claim to have suffered severe health problems as a result of exposure to the pesticide Nemagon (chemical name DBCP), which was being produced at that time by Shell and several other multinational companies. Victims are seeking compensation for damage which includes total or partial sterility, depression of the central nervous system, skin irritation, stomach and kidney problems and anxiety.
According to Manella, the ruling cannot be processed in the US because the Nicaraguan tribunal which issued the order does not have sufficient jurisdiction over Shell Oil Company. She also believes that it is “impossible to guarantee impartiality” within the Nicaraguan judicial system, a reference to Law 364 which establishes that the National Assembly deputies will promote and support the Nemagon victims’ cause.
Humberto Hurtado, legal representative of Dole Food Company (another of the multinationals against which the group of former banana workers have taken legal action) says that this resolution “demonstrates that the Nicaraguan sentences favouring the former agricultural workers are not applicable in the US or in any other country.” The Nemagon victims’ lawyers have sent the Nicaraguan verdict to tribunals in several other countries such as Colombia and Ecuador where resolutions are still awaited.
Source: (El Nuevo Diario, Managua, 25/11/05)
Read the section on Dole for more information about companies and pesticide use.
