The Law of the Banana
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney dismissed two tort cases against Dow Chemical and Dole as fraudulent. The suits alleged that chemicals manufactured by the defendants and used on banana plantations caused sterility. Law.com reports of the lawyers’ misconduct (see the full article here) – the Edelman referenced below is the defendants’ attorney:
They offered a $20,000 bounty in Nicaragua for information aboutwitnesses, Edelman said, and saw to it that Dole investigators weresubject to intimidation by police and other officials. The courttestimony that led to Chaney’s ruling detailed how a group ofNicaraguan lawyers, in apparent collusion with local officials, judgesand lab technicians, rounded up 10,000 men whom they coached to claimsterility — and to blame that sterility on Dole’s chemicals. In fact,many of the men had never worked for Dole, and many weren’t sterile.Some even had multiple children. “There [are] massive amounts ofevidence demonstrating the recruiting and training of fraudulentplaintiffs to bring cases in both the Nicaraguan and U.S. courts,”Chaney wrote.
The transcript of the hearing in which the judg excoriated the plaintiffs’ lawyers can be found at this link. She will hold a contempt hearing and potentially refer the lawyers to the bar disciplinary committee.
(H/T Legal Ethics Forum – Roy Simon gives this the cute title “Banana Lawyer Slips, Tort Cases Fall“)
ADL
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