Case Study: Costa Rican Banana Workers
Nematodes are the plague of banana trees. Burrowing deeply through the plants' root systems, the tiny worms' damage to fruit production is measured annually in millions of dollars to plantation owners.
After years of research, two large chemical companies believed they had developed the solution: DBCP, a chemical able to permanently sterilize nematodes upon dermal contact. Unfortunately, the companies also learned that the chemical could also cause aspermatosa--an irreversible loss of the ability to produce sperm among humans working in the chemical's manufacturing plants.
In Houston, Texas, world headquarters for one of the chemical companies, Baron & Budd filed suit for several hundred young Costa Rican banana plantation workers whose lives were unalterably changed because of their exposure to DBCP. Houston was chosen as the venue because many of the corporate decisions regarding the manufacturing, testing and sale of DBCP took place there. After years of litigation over whether Houston could be legally deemed a "convenient forum" for this case, in 1990 the Texas Supreme Court handed down its landmark decision in Alfaro v. Dow Chemical and paved the way for negotiations that led to significant compensation payments for each of the affected workers. Baron & Budd opened an office in San Jose, Costa Rica to provide personal representation for each client. Our work on this project established close relationships with many families whose lives were permanently changed by the events that began thousands of miles away. It is our hope that companies like this will strive to prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future.
Results Depend on the Facts of Each Case
