Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 13, 1993 TAG: 9308130126
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: COLUMBUS, GA. LENGTH: Medium
The settlement was reached while a U.S. District Court jury was in the second day of deliberations of a 5 1/2-week trial.
The case, representing the first Benlate lawsuits to come to trial, was watched closely by lawyers and farmers nationwide. About 400 other Benlate cases are pending.
It was not immediately clear how the money would be divided among the four ornamental-plant growers from Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii and Michigan. The lawsuits had sought a total of $148 million in damages.
The farmers said Benlate was contaminated with a powerful weed killer and DuPont covered up the danger. DuPont denies Benlate was harmful.
DuPont Chairman Edgar S. Woolard, who had testified at the trial, said the decision to settle was made to avoid the costs of a likely appeal regardless of which side won.
"As distasteful as it is to pay anything at all . . . it is a prudent business decision," Woolard said.
He said no evidence was presented to show that Benlate harmed crops, and much of the evidence favorable to DuPont was excluded from the trial by U.S. District Judge J. Robert Elliott.
"We will vigorously defend Benlate in the other cases . . . [in which] we expect to have a more balanced environment," Woolard said.
As part of the settlement, Elliott dropped a $1 million fine against DuPont for withholding evidence in the case.
Plaintiffs' attorney C. Neal Pope said the terms of the settlement prohibited him from discussing it. But he confirmed he had approached DuPont to settle.
"I've just been around a long time. And you've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em," he said.
In closing arguments Tuesday, Pope compared DuPont to a schoolyard bully that needed discipline. He urged the jury to "take them to the woodshed" with a large damage award.
Reports of crop damage related to Benlate first surfaced in 1991, and DuPont took the product off the market. It paid about 1,900 claims worth $500 million to farmers, mostly in Florida.
DuPont, based in Wilmington, Del., halted the payments in November and said new tests had exonerated Benlate.
The lawsuit said Benlate was contaminated with sulfonylurea, a potent herbicide made in a West Virginia plant near the facility where Benlate was manufactured.
by CNB