8-8-08
A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a key section of a ruling that a Florida tomato grower failed to provide adequate housing for migrant workers.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed with a lower court that Ag-Mart Produce Inc. had control over three motels where hundreds of workers were lodged during the 2001 and 2002 grape tomato harvests around Jennings, Fla., near the Georgia line.
 
The judges said there was nothing to show that Ag-Mart could ensure compliance with health and safety standards at the motels.
 
But the panel said the company should have clearly posted housing terms for the seasonal workers because under the law it was providing the lodging through its crew leaders.
 
Farms are not required to supply housing for migrant workers, but they must meet federal standards if they do, at least for quarters that they own or otherwise control. Worker advocates say growers try to get around those standards by contracting with motels or other facilities.
 
The lawyer for workers in the Florida lawsuit said most federal district courts have held that because crew leaders dealing with the motels are acting as agents for the farms, the farmers have control over living conditions.
 
Last year, U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr. of Jacksonville said Ag-Mart violated federal law because it did not ensure that the crew leaders provided safe, affordable and clean housing. In the first of several similar lawsuits, Adams ordered the company to pay the migrant workers $500,000 in damages.
 
The workers said that during the two seasons they were forced to share beds with strangers, and some women had to share crowded rooms and bathrooms with unrelated men. They testified that although they paid just $25 a week each for lodging, they spent nearly $20 a day on food from catering trucks because the rooms had no kitchens.
 
Ag-Mart's attorney, David J. Stefany of Tampa, said Friday's 11th Circuit opinion vindicated the company. Ag-Mart is a subsidiary of Philadelphia-based Procacci Brothers. It sells its grape tomatoes under the name Santa Sweets and heirloom tomatoes called UglyRipes.
 
"The fundamental issue was whether Ag-Mart controlled these commercial motels," Stefany said. "The court has concluded that they did not."
 
He said the $500,000 judgment "will be undone."
 
Greg Schell of the Migrant Farmworker Justice Project, who represented the workers, acknowledged, "It wasn't a good day for us. We know that."
 
"The reality is, if you had to bet, there is a good chance the district court will lower the award," Schell said.
 
But he said that does not mean Adams will let Ag-Mart off the hook entirely when the case returns to his court.
 
Schell said that although the workers' argument is weakened considerably, there remains the possibility of a settlement of lawsuits covering the years 2003 through 2006.