A federal judge allowed torture claims to stand in a lawsuit brought by thousands of Colombian laborers who claim Chiquita Brands International Inc. paid $1.7 million over nine years to a violent right-wing paramilitary group blamed for death squads that targeted civilians in banana-growing regions.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra in West Palm Beach, who presides over cases filed since 2007 in the District of Colombia, Florida and New York, on Wednesday denied several long-pending Chiquita motions to dismiss claims filed under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991. Marra also dismissed claims under the Alien Tort Statute, citing a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in an unrelated case.
