A French appeals court has refused to enforce a compensation order issued by a Nicaraguan court against Shell, Dow Chemical, and Occidental Chemical in relation to the pesticide DBCP.
The case concerns farm workers on banana plantations in Nicaragua's Chinandega region who reported infertility, chronic kidney failure, skin conditions, or cancer after prolonged exposure to Nemagon in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Nemagon contained dibromochloropropane (DBCP) and was used to control soil pests.
In 2006, a Nicaraguan court ordered the three companies to pay US$805 million to approximately 1,200 former plantation workers for health impacts linked to the pesticide. Attempts to enforce the ruling in the United States have not succeeded. According to the plaintiffs' lawyers, the companies withdrew their assets from Nicaragua and argued that Nicaraguan courts lacked jurisdiction.
In 2018, the plaintiffs sought enforcement of the ruling in France under legislation allowing recognition of foreign court decisions. They aimed to access European-based assets of the companies to fund compensation payments.
In 2022, a French lower court ruled that Nicaragua did not have jurisdiction because the defendants had requested a trial in the United States under a Nicaraguan law that allows such proceedings.
The Paris appeals court stated that the Nicaraguan judge had been competent. However, it ruled that the amounts awarded were "exorbitant" and "disproportionate" to the harm suffered and therefore could not be enforced in France because the decision did not comply with "international public order."
"We lost on the substantive public policy issue, with the court ruling that the damages were disproportionate, which we believe to be an error of assessment," said Raphael Kaminsky, lawyer for the farm workers. He indicated that the case will be taken to France's highest court.
DBCP was banned in the United States in 1977 after it was found to cause sterility in male workers, but continued to be exported and used in Nicaragua and other countries into the 1980s.
Source: DW
