So at the request of Dow Chemical, US courts order the suit tried in Nicaragua. Then, when the judgment goes against Dow, that same judicial system say that any judgment by a Nicaraguan court would be nonbinding. Because the system is corrupt and lets politically connected strongmen tell the judges how to rule, you see.
My irony scale just exploded.
Take a deep breath, there are some things you need to know before you pass judgment.
What happened is this: in a different case with different plaintiffs, Dow argued that the case should be argued in Nicaragua. But Dow never made that argument for this case. It was filed in Nicaragua because the plaintiffs wanted to file it there. The reason why Dow argued that earlier cases should be argued in Nicaragua was that at the time Nicaraguan law was favorable to them, and Nicaragua has since passed a law quite unfavorable to them. Bottom line, Dow never demanded this case be argued in Nicaragua.
A little background: this case is brought by banana plantation workers who were allegedly rendered sterile by DBCP, a pesticide. DBCP was shown to cause sterility in high doses, and the US stopped using it, but Dole wanted to continue to use it in foreign countries, and they threatened to sue Dow if it didn't provide it according to the contract between them. So now plantation workers who have allegedly been sterilized by the chemical are suing. Litigation over it has been going on for a very long time because it's really tricky to figure out, factually, who has been injured. The injury takes a long time to manifest, and the symptom is something that can happen for reasons unrelated to the chemical. So Nicaragua passed a law in 2000 that specifically addresses DBCP cases and makes life easier for plaintiffs by putting the burden of proof that a plaintiff has not been sterilized by DBCP on the defendant, so that instead of plaintiffs having to prove in court that the chemical sterilized them, Dow must now prove in court that the chemical did NOT sterilize them. That's a big no-no in American jurisprudence. The court that made the decision not to honor the Nicaraguan judgments did so on the basis of the Nicaraguan law I just described, not the fairness Nicaraguan courts in general. In fact, they specifically rejected the idea that the Nicaraguan justice system was corrupt (although a lower court ruled that it was). Incidentally, some plantation workers have brought claims in the US and won a lot of money (about $1m per successful plaintiff). Others have been shown to be frauds, not plantation workers at all, and had their cases thrown out on the merits.
So there you have it. I think Dow and Dole should have to pay out bigtime, and it is my sincere hope that they do, but I can't blame the court for refusing to honor the verdict.
