A federal judge has dismissed ten lawsuits filed against Cincinnati-based Chiquita Brands International by Colombian families alleging the company funded a paramilitary that killed them.
The judge says the plaintiffs failed to prove their claims. The judge also says the Colombian regions where the deaths happened were brutalized by various factions during the civil war. The lawsuits are serving as "bellwethers" to help determine whether 75 hundred similar cases have a chance of succeeding. The decision has been sent to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. Chiquita declined comment.
