The documentary — called Bananas! — tells the tale of the first U.S. trial involving the pesticide claims against Dole. In 2007, a jury in Los Angeles awarded $5.8 million in damages to six Nicaraguan workers in Tellez v. Dole, No. BC312852 (Los Angeles Co., Calif., Super. Ct.).
But in April, Los Angeles County, Calif., Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney threw out two similar cases against Dole in Los Angeles after finding that the plaintiffs and their lawyers — particularly lead plaintiffs’ attorney Juan J. Dominguez of the Law Offices of Juan J. Dominguez in Los Angeles — committed fraud in bringing the claims. Specifically, the judge found that plaintiffs and their lawyers had falsified work documents and claims of sterility and that evidence revealed a “truly heinous and repulsive” scheme of pervasive fraud involving Dominguez that was “cemented together by human greed and avarice,” according to the complaint, which was filed on July 8.
