Legal News

L.A. judge cuts damages against Dole over pesticide use

By Jason Siegel

Dole doesn't have to pay punitive damages to the estimated 6,000 field workers made sterile by a pesticide used in Nicaragua 30 years ago, a Los Angeles judge ruled..

L.A. Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney overturn jury verdicts finding Dole responsible for $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $2.5 in punitive damages for its past use of the now globally banned pesticide DBCP. Chaney ruled that punitive damages couldn't be used to punish Dole since it was user, not a marketer, of the pesticide and because it's a domestic corporation and the injuries happened in another country, the Los Angeles Times reported.

There are another 10,000 pesticide claims pending worldwide for about $35 billion, Dole's attorney Rick McKnight told the Times.

The workers have tried to have tried, failingly, to bring the trials to Central America and legal observers told the Times the verdict will   deter to future lawsuits in the United States.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 12, 2008 (boomark / email).