LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles judge has thrown out two class actions against Dole Food Co. after finding that the plaintiffs and their lawyers committed fraud in bringing the claims, which alleged that dozens of banana workers in Nicaragua were rendered sterile after being exposed to a certain pesticide called DBCP, according to a lawyer representing Dole.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney also said that she would refer the plaintiffs’ lawyers in the case — Juan Dominguez of the Law Offices of Juan J. Dominguez in Los Angeles and a Nicaraguan attorney named Antonio Hernández Ordeñana — to the State Bar of California and “other appropriate authorities,” according to Dole’s lawyer, Andrea Neuman, a partner in the Irvine office of Los Angeles-based Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
