Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Sunday, October 25, 2015
Pesticide Case by Hawaii Banana Workers Revived
By Selected News Articles @ 11:56 AM :: 6524 Views :: Environment, Agriculture, Labor

by Jeff D. Gorman, Court House News, 10/23/2015 

(CN) - The Dole fruit and Dow chemical companies must face a lawsuit from migrant farm workers who claim they were harmed by a pesticide, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled.

In the case at hand, banana plantation workers from Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama say they suffered reproductive injuries from exposure to the nematode worm killer dibromochloropropane. A previous ruling denied the plaintiffs class status, so the case involves just six named plaintiffs, led by Gereado Patrickson.

Dow Chemical and Shell Oil manufactured DBCP originally, but the chemical companies continued to distribute the nematocide to fruit companies in developing nations after the Environmental Protection Agency banned it in 1979.

While considering whether the case Patrickson and others brought in Hawaii belonged in state or federal court, the Ninth Circuit remarked in 2001 that nematocide is "alleged to cause sterility, testicular atrophy, miscarriages, liver damage, cancer and other ailments you wouldn't wish on anyone."

When the case finally settled in state court, specifically Hawaii's First Circuit Court, the defendants - among them Dow, Dole, Del Monte, Chiquita and Shell Oil - moved for summary judgment in 2009.

They contended that the plaintiffs waited too long to sue, since all six plantation workers had been part of a similar case filed in Florida in June 1995 and dismissed a month later.

For their part, the plaintiffs said they filed that Florida case only to preserve their rights when it seemed an injunction in unrelated DBCP litigation in Texas would bar new lawsuits.

The trial court sided with the companies, however, saying the plaintiffs should have filed within two years of the 1995 dismissal.

Hawaii's Supreme Court reversed Wednesday, however, finding that two-year window had been tolled by putative class actions in Texas that were ongoing.

Writing for the unanimous court, Justice Sabrina McKenna explained that some states do not use cross-jurisdictional tolling to prevent "forum-shopping and delay," while other states use it "to promote the effective utilization of judicial resources and the reduction of costs to individual litigants."

"We find the reasoning of those states adopting cross-jurisdictional tolling to be more persuasive, as well as our existing precedent," McKenna added.

Two months ago, the Third Circuit barred a separate DBCP lawsuit against Dole and Dow. More than 200 migrant farm workers filed that lawsuit in 1993, but it failed on jurisdictional grounds.

Judge Julio Fuentes complained in a dissent to that ruling that the workers deserved their day in court."They say they have injured kidneys, are infertile and are at heightened risk of cancer," Fuentes wrote. "Twenty years after first bringing suit, no court has heard the merits of their claims."

PDF: Order of Hawaii Supreme Court Oct 21, 2015

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT