A new lawyer has been retained by the six Nicaraguan men who say that Dole Food Company's pesticide-use rendered them sterile and whose case was thrown out earlier this year. From the LA Times:

Six Nicaraguan men who won a multimillion-dollar verdict in a 2007 jury trial against Dole Food Co. and other U.S. corporations are entitled to the money despite a Los Angeles judge's ruling that cast doubt on the merits of their case, the men's attorney wrote in papers filed Thursday.

As Fair Food reported the story, this verdict was overturned due to a shoddy case conducted by the previous lawyer for the Nicaraguans, Juan Dominguez. But the above LA Times article  throws light on some irregularieties in the court that heard the case, overseen by Judge Victoria Chaney:

Relying on secret testimony and sealed evidence gathered by Dole, Chaney said the fraud made it impossible to discern legitimate claims from fake ones...

Condie [the new lawyer in the case], in his filing, criticized the closed proceedings in which Dole presented testimony and statements from 27 "John Doe" witnesses...Condie, who said he was retained last week, called the process "flawed" and said it became "inquisitorial" because it relied entirely on evidence presented by one side.

Even if Dole proved there were thousands of fraudulent claims in Nicaragua, Condie argued, that would not discredit the claims of the men who were tested by American doctors and found by a jury to have been rendered sterile by the pesticide.

Secret evidence? Is this for real? How in the world did Dole convince a judge to accept sealed evidence, one wonders?

Because Dole convinced Chaney that they would be in danger in Nicaragua, the names of those witnesses were kept secret from the public and from a key attorney for the plaintiffs.

Dole's heart bleeds. This from the company that's apparently hiring death squads in Colombia. Touching.

Furthermore, one of the men who testified for Dole in secret is now willing to talk (so much for his relative safety), was paid $200 by Dole for his testimony, and was himself a plaintiff against Dole in a different pesticide suit.

This case stinks like a load of rotten bananas.