A case against fruit giant Dole took a sharp turn this week as the accused became the accuser.Lawyers for Dole claimed that attorneys working for the plaintiffs illegally recruited clients to make fake claims against the company regarding a pesticide known as DBCP. The lawyers contended that a California-based lawyer and his Nicaraguan partner also accused them of falsifying documents and hiding evidence.
(There has been no reported response from the accused attorneys: Juan Dominguez and Antonio Hernandez Ordenana.)
Former laborers for Dole in several Central American countries said that exposure to DBCP while working on banana plantations led them to become sterile. Though DBCP is banned worldwide, the lawsuit claimed that the company continues to illicitly sell it in poor countries.
In 2007 a jury awarded $2.5 million in punitive damages to five workers. Yet a judge later dismissed those damages after claiming that Dole couldn’t be monetarily punished for injuries in a foreign country.
Image- CBS News (“A former banana worker walks outside of the shack in front of Nicaragua's National Assembly in Managua, Wednesday, July 11, 2007.”)
Online Sources- Reuters, AP, The Latin Americanist
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