Legal News

Chiquita Faces Wrongful Death Suits for Payments to Terror Group

By Dan Slater

In September, five former execs at Chiquita dodged a bullet. The banana company had pleaded guilty to making illegal payments to the FARC, a Colombian terror group, and agreed to pay a $25 million fine. But the feds, facing strong opposition from the white-collar defense bar, opted against seeking individual charges against the executives. (This WSJ piece from last summer details the situation.)

But now, with the feds out of the way, Cincinnati-based Chiquita must contend with private suits by Colombians and Americans who claim they suffered from Chiquita’s financing of FARC, a violent left-wing group that was pushed out of the region in 1997 by a right-wing group, called the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which began collecting similar protection payments from Chiquita.

The latest: Relatives of five U.S. missionaries from the evangelical New Tribes Mission who were allegedly killed by FARC in the 1990s filed a suit yesterday in Florida federal court, accusing Chiquita of contributing to the deaths through its financing of FARC. Here’s the WSJ story.

A spokesman for Chiquita, which claims it made the payments under duress, reportedly said: “Our actions were always motivated to protect the lives of our employees and their families. We are contesting the suits vigorously and believe we have a strong defense.”

LB Loyals: We know it’s a bit early in the morning, but we’d love to hear from our One-L readers out there taking torts this semester. The wrongful-death suit alleges that Chiquita provided weapons and logistical support to FARC, and that its payments to FARC were a “contributing factor” in the deaths. What do they need to show to make out a case?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 12, 2008 (boomark / email).