Litigation

$2.3M verdict against Dole thrown out on fraud grounds

By Ted Frank

There were 3000-5000 workers on Dole banana plantations in pre-Sandinista Nicaragua, but trial lawyers were able to find 14,000 plaintiffs to sue Dole alleging that pesticides on the plantations caused sterility. The trial lawyers were able to trick the Tellez v. Dole jury into believing the claims of the fake banana workers. Despite the attempt at a multi-billion-dollar fraud on an innocent defendant, the judge refused to sanction the attorneys involved, and we can guess that the bar association or Obama Justice Department will not get involved, either. [NLJ; AP/WaPo; Corporate Counsel; LA Times; Bloomberg]

Separately, in the same case, the WSJ Law Blog, Hollywood Reporter and Carter Wood cover Jason Glaser, a documentarian who said he was secretly working for plaintiffs' lawyers for $17,000 a month.

Full post as published by Point of Law on July 16, 2010 (boomark / email).