CA court dismisses Pinoys’ lawsuit against Dole

LOS ANGELES—A lawsuit brought on by nearly 3,000 Filipino workers against Dole Food Company was dismissed on Thursday.

The Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed with prejudice Macasa v. Dole, which 2,935 Philippine plaintiffs filed in 2011.

Dole officials said the plaintiffs claimed they were banana workers who had been injured by exposure to the pesticide, dibromochloropropanethe (DBCP) more than 30 years ago.

The plaintiffs had filed an identical lawsuit 13 years earlier in the Philippines, which was ultimately dismissed by the Philippine Supreme Court.

“The Superior Court dismissed a case that should never have been brought in the first place,” said C. Michael Carter, Dole’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel. “There is simply no reliable scientific basis for alleged injuries from the agricultural field application of DBCP, and the fraudulent claims in Macasa were no different than other similar cases.”

DBCP was a common form of pesticide in the 1970s. The Environmental Protection Agency prohibited the use of the chemical in 1977. DBCP is classified as a probable human carcinogen. –Joseph Pimentel | AJ Press

(www.asianjournal.com)