Ecuadorian Workers Can Pursue Pesticide Claims Against Dole

Dole Food Co. Inc., Dow Chemical Co., Chiquita Brands International Inc., Shell Oil Co., and other companies must face claims in a long-running mass tort action brought by 65 Ecuadorian workers who claimed that they were exposed to a toxic pesticide while working on banana plantations in the 1960s through the 1980s, according to a federal judge who said the claims weren’t time barred.

Dole, a Delaware corporation, said that the workers’ claims are analogous to an Ecuadorian negligence claim, but Judge Richard G. Andrews of the US District Court for the District of Delaware agreed with an expert, ...