LOS ANGELES TIMES November 6, 2007 Jury considers punitive damages against Dole Plaintiffs in lawsuit say the food company deliberately exposed workers to a dangerous pesticide. The defense rejects that idea, saying the firm acted responsibly to guard the field hands' health. By John Spano
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Dole Food Co. deliberately exposed unwitting Nicaraguan field hands to a pesticide that made them sterile so the company could boost profits on its banana plantations, a lawyer for the workers argued this morning.
But lawyers for Dole said the firm acted responsibly in continuing to use the pesticide after production was stopped in 1977 by Dow Chemical Co. because of concerns about its impact on reproductive health.
The lawyers' arguments came as a Los Angeles Superior Court jury began deliberating punitive damages against Dole and Dow. Jurors on Monday found the two American corporate giants liable for $3 million in damages to six Nicaraguan banana workers who were made sterile by exposure to the chemical DBCP.
The panel will first decide whether punitive damages are warranted. If the answer is yes, jurors will rule separately how much to assess the companies.
Both sides claimed partial victory in the verdicts Monday. . Jurors awarded damages to six workers, but found that six others had not been harmed.
Farmworker activists said the decision was the first from an American jury on liability claims over DBCP, which was widely used in Central America to destroy pests that attacked the roots of banana trees. Four thousand other Central Americans have lawsuits pending in Los Angeles courts and tens of thousands of workers have filed lawsuits worldwide.
Verdicts have been returned against Dole in Nicaraguan courts, but lawyers for the plaintiffs say they have not been able to collect on the judgments.
The arguments this morning turned on what happened after Dow Chemical Co. discontinued production of the pesticide in 1977. Dole insisted that Dow fill its contracts to supply the fruit company with the pesticide. In 1978, when Dole issued instructions for handling the pesticide, its executives rejected a recommendation that workers be advised about the sterility problems, said Duane Miller, lead counsel for the workers. The recommendation was rejected as "not operationally feasible and need not be implemented," Miller said, quoting a company memo.
"They were making a decision for their own corporate benefit and profit to impose a risk on other human beings of permanent and severe injuries, and didn't even have the guts to tell them," Miller said.
"This is not about an accident. This is not about executives who were forced to make a decision on a few moments notice," Miller said. "They had plenty of time to think about it, and to do the right thing, and they consistently put a different priority above human safety: production. Tons of bananas."
But Dole attorney Rick McNight said the instructions were for workers housed on plantations in areas "a safe distance away" from fields where the chemical was applied.
He presented an array of Dole memorandums, which he said showed Dole's concern for workers and for safety.
"This is not vile conduct," McNight said. "This is responsible conduct." |