Aldana v. Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A.

• Decision Date: 06 February 2014
• Docket Number: No. 12–16143.,12–16143.
• Parties: Angel Enrique Villeda ALDANA, Jorge Augustin Palma Romero, et al., Plaintiffs–Appellants, v. DEL MONTE FRESH PRODUCE N.A., INC., Bandegua, Compania De Desarrollo De Guatemala, et al., Defendants–Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

741 F.3d 1349

Angel Enrique Villeda ALDANA, Jorge Augustin Palma Romero, et al., Plaintiffs–Appellants,

v.DEL MONTE FRESH PRODUCE N.A., INC., Bandegua, Compania De Desarrollo De Guatemala, et al., Defendants–Appellees.

No. 12–16143.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

Feb. 6, 2014.

Terrence Patrick Collingsworth, Natacha Thys, Conrad & Scherer, LLP, Washington, DC, D. Marcus Braswell, Jr., Robert A. Sugarman, Sugarman & Susskind, PA, Coral Gables, FL, William R. Scherer, III, Conrad & Scherer, LLP, Fort Lauderdale, FL, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Lazaro Fernandez, Jr., Brian Joseph Stack, Mindy Lee Pallot, Stack Fernandez Anderson & Harris, PA, Miami, FL, for Defendant–Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. D.C. Docket No. 1:01–cv–03399–FAM.

Before MARCUS and DUBINA, Circuit Judges, and HODGES,^* District Judge.

MARCUS, Circuit Judge:

For the third time, we take up this case involving Guatemalan labor organizers who claim that Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc. (“Del Monte, Inc.”) and its subsidiaries were responsible for armed kidnapping, intimidation, and torture on a Guatemalan banana plantation in 1999. When last we met, this Court affirmed the dismissal of Plaintiffs' claims for forum non conveniens. Plaintiffs since filed a complaint in Guatemala, but the local court refused to hear the case because of that country's forum non conveniens blocking statute. Without appealing that decision, Plaintiffs sought to reinstate their action in federal court. The district court refused to reopen the case in the absence of exceptional circumstances pursuant to Rule 60(b)(6). Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(6). Rule 60(b)(6) does not provide relief because on this record Plaintiffs cannot justify their failure to mention the blocking law or the unavailability of a foreign forum to the district court during the prior proceedings. See Galbert v. W. Caribbean Airways, 715 F.3d 1290, 1294 (11th Cir.2013), cert. denied,––– U.S. ––––, 134 S.Ct. 792, 187 L.Ed.2d 595 (2013). The district court did not abuse its considerable discretion in refusing reinstatement when the Plaintiffs created the procedural plight they now challenge. We affirm.

I.

Plaintiffs are Guatemalan citizens and former officers of Sindicato de Trabajadores del Banano de Izabla (SITRABI), a labor union representing banana workers at the Zaculeu Lanquin Arapahoe Plantation in the Bobos District, Municipality of Morales, Izabal, Guatemala (the “Bobos plantation”). Aldana v. Del Monte Fresh Produce, N.A., Inc. (Aldana I), 416 F.3d 1242, 1257 (11th Cir.2005) (per curiam). Defendants are Del Monte, Inc.; Del Monte Fresh Produce Company (“Del Monte Fresh”); and Compania De Desarollo Bananero De Guatemala, S.A. (“Bandegua”). Plaintiffs state that Del Monte Fresh, a Delaware corporation, and Bandegua, a Guatemalan corporation, are wholly owned by Del Monte, Inc., a for-profit company with a principal place of business in Coral Gables, Florida. Del Monte, Inc. is one of the world's largest producers and distributors of bananas. Id.

In the fall of 1999, Plaintiffs were enmeshed in a bitter labor dispute at the Bandegua-owned Bobos plantation. See Aldana v. Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc. (Aldana II), 578 F.3d 1283, 1286 (11th Cir.2009). Plaintiffs allege that on October 13 and 14, in retaliation for their union activities, an armed private security force employed by Defendants kidnapped, detained, and tortured them on the plantation. Id. Specifically, Plaintiffs claim that the armed security force held them for eight hours, repeatedly threatened them with imminent death, forced them at gunpoint to sign formal resignation letters and to make radio announcements acknowledging the union's defeat, and released them only after saying they would be killed if they did not flee the country. Id. Plaintiffs have since been granted political asylum in the United States. Id. at 1286–87.

We are well acquainted with this case. Plaintiffs filed their first complaint in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida on August 2, 2001, asserting violations of international law through the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) and the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), 28 U.S.C. § 1350.¹ The complaint also included Florida tort claims. In 2003, Defendants moved to dismiss for forum non conveniens. The district court denied the motion, but in a subsequent ruling it dismissed on other grounds. Villeda Aldana v. Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc., 305 F.Supp.2d 1285, 1291, 1308 (S.D.Fla.2003). Plaintiffs appealed the dismissal, while simultaneously filing state law claims in a Dade County, Florida, circuit court. Aldana II, 578 F.3d at 1287. A panel of this Court reversed the dismissal of the TVPA and ATS claims for torture and remanded to the district court. Aldana I, 416 F.3d at 1253.

Meanwhile, the state court dismissed due to forum non conveniens, but said it would revisit its decision if the Plaintiffs were required to return to Guatemala in connection with the trial. Aldana II, 578 F.3d at 1287. A Florida appeals court affirmed. Aldana v. Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc., 922 So.2d 212 (Fla. 3d DCA 2006) (unpublished table decision). On remand in federal court, the district court also dismissed for forum non conveniens. Following the state court's findings where necessary because of collateral estoppel, the district court concluded that each prong of the forum non conveniens inquiry favored dismissal: Guatemala provided an “adequate alternative forum” and all of the relevant private and public interest factors weighed heavily in favor of adjudication there. Aldana II, 578 F.3d at 1288. While the Plaintiffs contended that Guatemalan courts were not adequate because adjudication there placed their lives at risk, they in no way argued that a Guatemalan forum was unavailable. Like the state court, the district court expressly preserved the “Plaintiff's right to seek reconsideration if any of the Plaintiffs are required to appear in person in Guatemala in order to litigate their claims.” Villeda Aldana v. Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc., 01–3399–CIV, 2007 WL 3054986, at *6 (S.D.Fla. Oct. 16, 2007). On appeal we affirmed, finding no abuse of discretion in the district court's determination. Aldana II, 578 F.3d at 1300. We concluded that Guatemalan courts were “adequate,” despite the Plaintiffs' concerns with safety and corruption, and “available,” when Plaintiffs did not contest that “Guatemala possesses jurisdiction over the entire case.” Id. at 1290. In addition, we found that the district court did not err in determining that both the private and public interest factors weighed in favor of dismissal. Id. at 1292–1300.

Plaintiffs unsuccessfully sought rehearing en banc, Aldana v. Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc., 401 Fed.Appx. 518 (11th Cir.2010) (unpublished table decision), and certiorari in the Supreme Court, Aldana v. Fresh Del Monte Produce, Inc., ––– U.S. ––––, 131 S.Ct. 102, 178 L.Ed.2d 29 (2010) (mem.). After exhausting their options in an American judicial forum, the Plaintiffs filed an ex parte complaint in a trial court in the Department of Izabal, Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, on December 6, 2010. Notably, in that submission Plaintiffs cited Decree 34–97, Guatemala's forum non conveniens blocking statute, which provides in relevant part:

DEFENSE OF THE PROCEDURAL RIGHTS OF NATIONALS AND RESIDENTS ACT

Article 1. Because it violates the rights guaranteed by the Political Constitution of the Republic and the judicial order of the Guatemala [sic], the theory of Forum Non Conveniens—lack of jurisdiction due to inconvenient forum—is declared unacceptable, inapplicable, and invalid when invoked to prevent the trial from continuing in the defendant's domicile Courts.

Article 2. The action in personam validly filed abroad by a national plaintiff before a competent judge shall extinguish national jurisdiction which shall not be renewed unless a new claim is filed in the country in a spontaneous and totally free manner by the plaintiff.

Article 3. In the event a foreign judge is informed of the scope of this law and he declines to hear the case submitted to his jurisdiction, Guatemalan courts may reassume jurisdiction as an exceptional, measure and to avoid depriving Guatemalan nationals and residents of due process....

The day after Plaintiffs submitted their complaint, the Guatemalan court issued a ruling refusing to hear the claims:

[T]he said lawsuit is DENIED, due to the fact that after reading the lawsuit it is clear that the represented party has already filed a lawsuit for damages in the United States District Court, Southern District of Florida (Whereby) [sic] this court is incompetent to hear this lawsuit. Regarding this subject, article 2 of the Law of Defense of Procedural Rights for Nationals and Residents, Decree 34–97 of the National Congress of the Republic of Guatemala, establishes that an action duly filed abroad by a national before a competent court precludes the national competence; being this the grounds to declare inadmissible the lawsuit filed.

Plaintiffs then moved to reinstate their suits both in state and federal court without appealing the decision in Guatemala. The Florida court refused to reopen the matter and the state appellate court affirmed. Aldana v. Fresh Del Monte Produce, 86 So.3d 1127 (Fla. 3d DCA 2012) (unpublished table decision).

In contesting the federal motion, both sides put forth competing Guatemalan legal experts. Defendants submitted the declaration of Francisco Chavez Bosque, whose experience included 35 years of legal practice in Guatemalan courts and time as a law professor teaching civil procedure. According to Bosque, a plaintiff may challenge a judge's refusal to hear a case in a number of ways. First, a plaintiff may file a written objection with the judge called a nulidad. If the judge denies the nulidad, the plaintiff may appeal to the Court of Appeals. If the...