Dole workers win $2.5 million in suit over banana pesticide

Oakland Tribune, Nov 16, 2007

LOS ANGELES -- A jury in a lawsuit against Dole Fresh Fruit Co. awarded $2.5million in punitive damages Thursday to five workers who said they were made sterile by use of a pesticide used on Nicaraguan banana plantations in the 1970s.

Last week, the Superior Court jury awarded $3.3 million in actual damages to six workers. The jury's finding that Dole acted maliciously in harming five of the six allowed punitive damages to be considered for the five.

The punitive damages total was to be split evenly among the five workers.

Twelve workers originally filed suit, but the jury determined that only six had been substantially harmed by the pesticide, DBCP. The six won awards ranging from $311,200 to $834,000.

Among them was Jose Uriel Gutierrez, who testified that he lived on the plantation and could often smell the remnants of DBCP, a ripe guava odor that sometimes gave him headaches. Gutierrez was never able to conceive with his girlfriend even though she had children from a previous relationship.

The suit accused Westlake-based Dole of negligence and fraudulent concealment while using DBCP. It also alleged that Dow Chemical Co. and Amvac Chemical Co., the pesticide's makers, knew it could leave workers sterile and concealed that information.

Amvac reached a $300,000 settlement before the trial.

In deciding the earlier actual damages, the jury said Dole would pay the bulk of the award.

Dow was not liable for punitive damages because the judge granted the company's petition to apply Michigan law to the amount and types of damages earlier in the trial. Michael L. Brem, one of the attorneys for the Midland, Mich.-based company said this would prevent punitive damages and cap any compensatory damages at $394,200 per plaintiff.

During the trial, Dole was accused of improperly applying the pesticide in amounts far exceeding guidelines. The pesticide was used to kill microscopic worms at the roots of banana plants.

Rick McKnight, who represented Dole, said the pesticide was only applied once or twice a year and that the plants were doused with 56,000 gallons of water for more than an hour afterward. Dole and Dow attorneys said the workers were not exposed to enough DBCP.

The case is the first of five lawsuits involving at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Ecuador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama who claim they were left sterile after being exposed to the pesticide. Other growers and manufacturers are named as defendants in those cases.