max s. gerber(the latest shot)

dibromochloropropane (DBCP) is a chemical pesticide. manufactured by dow, it was used in the 1970s on crops grown in the US and abroad. DBCP was found to cause sterility in workers at the dow plant where it was manufactured. dole foods, one of the world’s biggest producers of fresh fruits and vegetables, stopped using DBCP on its banana crops in latin america in 1977, when dow ceased production of the chemical. over the years dole (and dow) have settled many lawsuits from workers who claimed to have been affected  by DBCP. a DBCP trial in 2007, though, took a bizarre turn.

dole was being sued by 54 men who claimed to have been made sterile while working in their banana fields in nicaragua in the 70s. michael carter, dole’s general counsel, thought something sounded fishy, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. dole lost that first trial, a jury awarded damages of 5 million dollars to six of the workers. then the weirdness started.

a mystery witness – who they actually referred to as “witness X” – came forward in nicaragua and revealed some surprising things. he said that the whole thing was a fraud put together by the plaintiff’s lawyers. he said that some of the workers suing dole had never actually worked on their banana fields. he revealed that some workers who claim to have been made sterile by DBCP decades ago even had children. witness X alleged that even the judge in nicaragua was in on the scam. carter flew witness X out to LA right away. then he got scared and refused to testify.

carter hired rudy perrino as an in-house litigator to handle all the fraudulent claims. for extra backup he hired ted boutrous, andrea neuman and scott edelman of gibson, dunn & crutcher. boutrous was an expert in dealing with punitive damage awards in litigation, edelman was good with the judges and juries and neuman was good at getting people to relax and be revealing.

neuman interviewed some of the plaintiff’s wives, many of whom had stories that were wildly inconsistent with their husband’s accounts. they got witnesses to practically admit to memorizing false testimony fed to them by the plaintiff’s attorneys. in the end, from the one witness X, carter and his team got 27 people to come forward and admit to the fraud.

while this was all going on a documentary was made about the original 2007 trial in which dole was found at fault. the documentary made no mention of the fraud behind the case. dole tried to stop the film’s release, to no avail. in the end the filmmakers gave in somewhat and put a brief text acknowledgment at the conclusion of the documentary that mentioned the allegations against the plaintiff’s attorneys.

it’s always an easy out to assume that the giant multinational corporation is, at its heart, inherently evil and poisoning us. how strange it must be, and how difficult it must be, to turn one’s thinking around and admit that – for once – the giant corporation may actually not be as guilty as we thought.