A subsidiary of Coral Gables-based Fresh Del Monte Produce is suing R.J. Reynolds and a Kraft Foods subsidiary, demanding both pay for leaving it with a $14 million tab for cleaning up contaminated groundwater at a Hawaiian pineapple plantation.
The fresh fruit distributor filed a contractual indemnity lawsuit in Miami-Dade Circuit Court against both companies Oct. 7, marking its second attempt to recover clean-up costs for work on the Superfund site. That designation applies to half of a 6,000-acre parcel the company farmed until 2008 when it switched to buying pineapples on the open market.
