June 14, 2024
Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley PA, EarthRights International, Conrad & Scherer LLP, Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, International Rights Advocates and several individual attorneys triumphed June 10 after a Florida federal jury ordered Chiquita to pay $38.3 million over its funding of right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia’s banana-producing region. The jury ordered the company to pay 16 of the plaintiffs — all survivors of eight of the nine victims of the Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia whose deaths were at issue in the case — the money as damages for the losses of their loved ones. The plaintiffs are represented by John Scarola, Mariano Garcia and Victoria Mesa-Estrada of Searcy Denney, Rick Herz, Maryum Jordan, Marissa Vahlsing and Marco Simons of EarthRights International, William Scherer of Conrad & Scherer, Agnieszka Fryszman and Leslie Kroeger of Cohen Milstein, Terry Collingsworth of International Rights Advocates and attorneys James Green, William Wichmann, Jonathan Reiter and Gabriela Paola Valentin Diaz.
Read In re Chiquita Brands International Inc. Litigation Team Recognized as Legal Lions Of The Week.