DuPont surrendered more than 37,000 documents to comply with a court order requiring the maker of the shelved fungicide Benlate to produce documents in a lawsuit dating back to 1992, but attorneys for growers claim that 67,000 more are still needed.
Five Miami-Dade growers suing DuPont claim some of the newly disclosed documents reveal a long-running cover-up — relevant documents were misfiled or mislabeled in a discovery fraud.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Amy Steele Donner signed a show cause order March 17 demanding DuPont immediately produce all documents it had previously deemed unrelated to the Benlate case before her.
She said she would consider striking DuPont’s pleadings if the company failed to comply, which would set up a trial on damages only.
In the following weeks, DuPont’s attorneys handed over thousands of documents.
Miami attorney Robert J. Ratiner, who represents the five growers claiming crop losses from Benlate use, presented several of those documents in court Friday, showing some were directly related to the case.
“Judge, this was an orchestrated design of deceit from the beginning,” he said.
DuPont attorneys denied allegations of discovery fraud.
Donner told DuPont attorneys that they had more than enough time to produce records.
Company attorney Bert Ocariz of Shook Hardy & Bacon in Miami said the judge referred to only a certain class of documents, which were produced. But the judge said her order clearly intended for the production of everything.
“I don’t think you should have narrowly construed my order,” she said. “That would seem you are playing games with the court.”
Ocariz said that was not the case.
Donner did not make a ruling by deadline, saying late Friday that the hearing would continue on June 11.
via Law.com – Benlate Case Heats Up Over Document Accusations.
