WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dole Food Company, Inc. today announced that the Los Angeles Superior Court dismissed with prejudice the case Perez v. Dole Food Company, Inc. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2009, had been brought by 167 Colombian plaintiffs claiming that Dole had funded violent paramilitaries (the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia or AUC) during Colombia’s civil conflict.
Recently the Court awarded Dole tens of thousands of dollars in sanctions for the plaintiffs’ and their counsel’s “misuse of the discovery process” and separately ordered discovery into witness payment issues and a forensic investigation of plaintiffs’ counsel’s laptops and other electronic devices. Rather than defend themselves against Dole’s claims that plaintiffs’ counsel paid for fabricated testimony and engaged in other serious witness tampering, plaintiffs and their counsel chose instead to abandon their false allegations and dismiss the case with prejudice.
Genevieve Kelly, Dole’s Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, stated: “This is a long overdue dismissal of a case that should never have been brought in the first place. These plaintiffs’ lawyers acted in bad faith throughout almost seven years of litigation in trying to extract undeserved payments from the Company and making false and inflammatory accusations.”
Johan Linden, Dole’s President and Chief Operating Officer, also stated: “Dole did not fund the AUC, and all assertions to the contrary are completely outrageous. Dole fought back every step of the way and brought to light the abuse of legal process, which led to the plaintiffs abandoning their case with prejudice.”
About Dole Food Company, Inc.
Dole Food Company is one of the world’s largest producers and marketers of high-quality fresh fruit and fresh vegetables, Dole is an industry leader in many of the products it sells, as well as in nutrition education and research. For more information, please visit www.dole.com.
