Pineapple Litigation Sours into 'Day of Reckoning,' as Del Monte Alleges Contempt
The fight between Monaco-based pineapple grower Del Monte International GmbH and Costa-Rican plantation Inversiones y Procesadora Tropical Inprotsa appears destined to continue.
October 15, 2019 at 02:00 PM
4 minute read
The relationship between two pineapple growers just got pricklier as Monaco-based Del Monte International GmbH has accused its Costa Rican partner-turned-rival, Inversiones y Procesadora Tropical Inprotsa, of willfully violating a 2017 final judgment that blocked the Latin American company from selling pineapples derived from Del Monte seeds.
The seeds, called MD-2, are hybrids designed to spawn pineapples that are exceptionally sweet and juicy.
Del Monte labeled its renewed motion for contempt a "day of reckoning" for pineapple plantation Inprotsa, which it claimed has "openly—indeed brazenly—violated the injunction against sales of MD-pineapples since the day the court entered its final judgment."
The final judgment at issue is a $26 million arbitration award in Del Monte's favor, plus $650,000 in costs and $2.5 million in attorney fees. Inprotsa fought the award, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit upheld it in April. The U.S. Supreme Court then denied certiorari review.
The companies have been at loggerheads since 2013, when a dispute arose from a 13-year pineapple sales agreement they'd signed in 2001. The agreement outlined that Del Monte would sell MD-2 seeds to Inprotsa, which would grow and sell them back—until the contract expired, when Inprotsa would return or destroy the remainder, according to court pleadings.
Inprotsa sold more than $200 million worth of pineapples during that time, according to court documents. But Del Monte claimed Inprotsa breached the arrangement by selling pineapples to competitors, instead of returning or destroying the leftover seeds.
Del Monte's motion seeks a $16.3 million compensatory fine to make up for Inprotsa's alleged ill-gotten revenue, and attorney fees and costs.
The pleading is the second of its kind, filed more than a year after an initial motion for contempt, which Del Monte claims Inprotsa never properly rebutted.
Inprotsa had partnered with the Dole Food Co. before its alliance with Del Monte and has alleged it only made the move because it was misled into believing Del Monte owned exclusive rights to MD-2 seeds.
Del Monte helped create the seeds with the Pineapple Research Institute of Hawaii but doesn't own exclusive rights to them.
Inprotsa has claimed it fully complied with the arbitration award, which asked that it destroy 93% of its vegetative material. But it claimed that under Costa Rican regulations and environmental law, it couldn't immediately destroy 460 hectares of agriculture. Instead, Inprotsa claimed it did so in stages, replacing each destroyed field with new, non-Del Monte MD-2 pineapple seeds.
Inprotsa has decided to phase out of the pineapple business, according to its response to Del Monte's motion for contempt.
"This could not happen immediately, however, given that it would take time to destroy the existing vegetative material in compliance with Costa Rican law, and that Inprotsa did not want to terminate its 600 employees," the company claimed.
Del Monte's counsel, Brian Stack, Robert Harris, Denise Crockett and Lazaro Fernandez Jr. of Stack Fernandez & Harris in Miami, declined to comment. Inprotsa's lawyers, Richard C. Lorenzo and Alvin F. Lindsay III of Hogan Lovells in Miami, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno is presiding over the case in the Southern District of Florida.
Read more:
11th Circuit Won't Slice Del Monte's $26M Award in Dispute With Pineapple Grower
Cyclist's $11.4 Million South Florida Verdict in Peril Over Alcohol Claims
Parker Waichman Can't Get Departing Lawyer's $4.2M Contingency Fee, Florida Court Rules
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