Magistrate Judge Lauren Louis ruled on Thursday against granting food company Del Monte damages requested against a Costa Rican pineapple grower, who allegedly defied a court judgment asking the company to stop cultivating and selling pineapple seeds which originated from Del Monte.
The Southern District of Florida Magistrate Judge did rule that Inversiones Y Procesadora Tropical Inprotsa S.A. (Inprosta) will be required to pay over $200,000 in attorneys’ fees and was ordered to explain why it should not be held in contempt for violating the court’s final judgment. Inprosta allegedly has continued to sell pineapples, which the court ruled came from Del Monte’s seeds. Del Monte asked for over $16 million in its Renewed Motion for Entry of Final Judgement of Contempt.
“While I do not recommend disgorgement as an appropriate remedy … the purpose of civil contempt is to end the contemptuous behavior at issue. When a movant is forced to seek contempt in order to affect compliance with a lawfully entered order, the movant is entitled to recover its reasonable attorney’s fee and expenses,” the judge stated.
An arbitral panel ruled that the pineapple seeds being used by Inprosta were Del Monte’s seeds and awarded monetary damages and injunctions asking Inprosta to destroy all seeds with more than 7% of its vegetative material and to only sell any pineapples derived from the seeds to Del Monte. The judgment was confirmed by Judge Federico Moreno in May 2017.
Inprosta allegedly continued cultivating and harvesting the pineapples and sold them to a third party, causing Del Monte to file an Order to Show Cause in March 2018. After that instance, Inprosta was ordered to pay over $29 million and either sell the pineapples harvested to Del Monte or destroy them.
After that judgment, Del Monte found that Inprosta still had 1,150 hectares, almost 3,000 acres, of farmland where the pineapples were growing, which the company did not destroy or sell to Del Monte. Rather, the company sold it to Fruver, which is owned by a family friend of officers in Inprosta.
“I recommended that Judge Moreno order Inprotsa, and its officers, Jorge Luis Gurria Hernandez and Manuel Gurria Ordonez, to show cause why the Court should not hold them in contempt for failing to comply with the Court’s Final Judgement,” the recommendation stated.
The Magistrate Judge said that Inprosta has not presented new evidence to show why it could not comply with the final judgment, but the facts showed the pineapple growers chose not to comply.
The recommendation explains that Improsta’s memorandum raised defenses which were procedural, legal, and factual. The company claimed that the Magistrate Judge did not have the authority to conduct further proceedings and the issue should be determined by Judge Moreno. The company also claimed that the court’s order “was not clear and unambiguous” claiming ambiguity around if the injunction could be enforced.
