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A Los Angeles judge this week threw out a jury decision to award $2.3 million in the case of Tellez Vs Dole Corporation. The case was brought by Los Angeles-based personal injury lawyer Juan Dominguez and his partner Duane Millera on behalf of a group of banana workers in Nicaragua who claimed they had suffered serious health effects including sterility from Dole’s use of a dangerous pesticide called Dibromochloropropane (DBCP). DBCP had been banned in most countries including the US and is linked to cancer, birth defects, and reproductive problems. Thousands of Nicaraguans suffering the ill-effects of the pesticide celebrated when the initial jury ruled in favor of the workers. But last week, based on the testimony of 27 anonymous (or so-called “John Doe”) witnesses brought by Dole, the original judge in the case, Victoria Chaney dismissed the Tellez verdict and all other pending cases on the basis of fraud. In particular, the judge’s action was based according to the LA Times, on “an elaborate international scheme by plaintiffs’ attorneys who tried to recruit fake banana workers, manipulate medical tests and defraud the American court system.” The original case was profiled recently in a documentary by Sweden-based filmmaker Fredrik Gertten. I spoke with Gertten in our studios last year right when his award-winning film was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival. Based on just the film’s trailer Dole contacted the festival and threatened legal action, prompting the film to be pulled out of competition. When Gertten went back to Sweden he was hit by a lawsuit by Dole.

GUESTS: Fredrik Gertten, film maker of Bananas, Katherine Hoyt, National Co-Coordinator of the Nicaragua Network.

Find out more about the film Bananas at www.bananasthemovie.com. Write to the film maker Fredrik Gertten on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/BANANAS/121163091704?ref=ts

Find out more about the Nicaragua Network at www.nicanet.org.