The buzz continues to expand over the remarkable revelations in Los Angeles of one of the most massive and methodically-corrupt client recruitment schemes ever uncovered.
The plaintiff lawyer-engineered scam was based on phony allegations that thousands of Nicaraguan banana workers were rendered sterile by pesticides used on Central American banana plantations.
Nicaraguan lawmakers got the ball rolling with a legislated assumption that anyone who worked on a banana farm got poisoned. Nicaraguan judges, lawyers, and heavy-handed client "recruiters" rolled the ball into perhaps 10,000 class action plaintiffs. Some California lawyers took over and pitched it into an L.A. courtroom.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Victoria Chaney upheld the integrity of the courts in unraveling this ball and exposing it. In her words: "... if you took all the bad cases I've read and put them together, they don't even come close to what's happened here."
News stories don't do this travesty justice. It had -- still has -- elements of physical danger to plaintiffs, defense lawyers, and investigators. It has a cast of Central American political and legal pirates. Most amazingly, it got a toe hold in our state in our courts!
But fortunately, Judge Chaney was there: "... although there has been a strong attempt to bring the seeds of the Nicaraguan corruption here to this country, it has not succeeded, and if I have anything to say about it, it will not succeed."
As Judge Chaney told a courtroom audience when she dismissed the case last week: "The actions of the attorneys in Nicaragua and of some of the attorneys in the United States, specifically the Law Offices of Juan Dominguez, have perverted this court's ability to deliver justice to those parties that come before it."
And she concluded by assuring that: "I will be making referrals that I believe are appropriate to either the state bar of this state, perhaps state bars of other states, and to prosecutorial agencies."
There is no substitute for reading this ruling. Here it is, 28 pages, large type, following this warm-up from the American Lawyer web site.
"Breathing Fire from the Bench, Judge Finds Plaintiffs' Lawyers Committed Fraud, Dismisses Tort Case Against Dole as Sanction
It's not that we're jaded, exactly, but it takes more than run-of-the-mill allegations of attorney misconduct to impress us. So when we say that a hearing that took place last Thursday in Los Angeles superior court addressed the most egregious plaintiffs lawyer extortion and fraud allegations we've seen this side of criminal indictment, we're not being hyperbolic. And if that description isn't enough to make you click on our link to the hearing transcript, consider this: Judge Victoria Chaney may also have set a record for the most extended metaphor that we've ever heard in a courtroom. We're talking fire-breathing chimeras, people."
Read, too, what aforementioned plaintiff attorney Juan J. Dominguez says -- admits -- on his web site about his role in the case: "Significantly, I am currently the lead attorney representing over 10,000 workers, in combination with several other law firms ... I oversee the legal work by all lawyers both here in the United States and in Central America. I also have monthly radio broadcasts providing status to the affected communities, public, and clients."
You will be amazed to read, in Judge Chaney's ruling, the message of some radio broadcasts.
Read more about Mr. Dominguez, whose web site bio tells us he is "one of the most widely known, recognized and respected personal injury attorneys in Southern California ... regularly interviewed by the news media for legal rights that he seeks to champion for thousands of seriously injured workers in Central America."
The Los Angeles Times on May 27, 2007, ran a long story on the plight of the banana workers and the heroics of Mr. Dominguez and his thunder speeches in Nicaragua. The article was titled: "Plantation workers look for justice in the North."
They found it, in a most sad manner. Those who led them on may now find justice, too.