Judge throws out Dole award

You may recall that a jury found the Westlake Village-based company to be responsible for injuries allegedly caused by the chemical dibromochloropropane, or DBCP, which Dole applied in Central America after it was banned in the U.S. Six Nicaraguan men were awarded $2.3-million - and many other cases were on tap. Well, California Appellate Judge Victoria Chaney, who presided over the original trial, ruled that fraud by American and Nicaraguan attorneys had tainted the verdict. From the LAT:

Chaney made sweeping findings in April 2009 -- two years after the original verdict was handed down -- that a second batch of cases had been based on an elaborate international scheme by plaintiffs' attorneys who tried to recruit fake banana workers, manipulate medical test results and defraud the American court system. Her ruling was based largely on testimony by 27 secret witnesses. After Chaney dismissed those pending cases, Dole asked the court of appeal to dismiss the Tellez verdict.

Today's ruling is based on several days of hearings in which plaintiffs were asked to prove that their case was not based on fraud. Lots of accusations back and forth.