Court reinstates Florida grower's DuPont lawsuit

Associated Press

MIAMI — An appeals court yesterday reinstated a lawsuit against DuPont, which again must fight claims that an orchid grower's flowers and plants were ruined by its recalled fungicide Benlate.

The decision by the 3rd District Court of Appeal calls for a third trial in an 11-year-old lawsuit over Benlate used by Claire and Phillip Sidran at her hobby-turned-business from 1988 to 1991. The Miami nursery went out of business.

DuPont was improperly allowed to tell jurors that the Sidrans' well water was polluted with dry-cleaning solvents even though there was no evidence that the solvents damaged the orchids, the appeals court decided.

U.S. and Latin American growers have claimed that DuPont engaged in a cover-up to shift crop-damage blame away from Benlate.

The company ordered a halt to Benlate production in 2002. It has paid more than $1 billion in settlements and legal fees on damage claims.

In July, an opinion by the Hawai'i Supreme Court opened the way for former state Sen. David Matsuura, his brother, Stephen, and four other plaintiffs to seek a jury trial on fraud claims against DuPont. The Matsuuras and other nurserymen had settled their product liability cases against DuPont in April 1994 before learning the company withheld evidence of widespread Benlate contamination.

The distorted test results were revealed in another Benlate trial in state court in Kona, in which the plaintiff, Kawamata Farms, won nearly $10 million in compensation and $14 million in punitive damages in January 1995. Circuit Judge Ronald Ibarra also fined DuPont $1.5 million for committing fraud.