BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott dismissed a "banana wars" lawsuit Tuesday, saying Honduras was the place for Ernst Otto Stalinski and Chiquita to settle their differences.
Robert E. Manley, attorney for Mr. Stalinski, had urged the judge to retain the case, accusing Chiquita of corrupting judges in Honduras, committing piracy and trying to kidnap Mr. Stalinski. Mr. Stalinski wants more than $1.5 million for what he said were lost commissions. He sued Chiquita, first in Honduras, then in Cincinnati, where Chiquita has its headquarters.
However, Judge Dlott agreed with Chiquita, saying Honduran courts were "adequate" and "the convenience of the parties and the interests of justice" were best served by dismissing Mr. Stalinski's suit in Cincinnati.
Defendants are Chiquita Brands International, Chiquita International Trading Co., Chiquita's Honduran subsidiary, Tela Railroad Co., and Alejandro A. Bakoczy, Chiquita security chief. Mr. Stalinski says Chiquita blocked him -- through abuse of the Honduran legal system and malicious prosecution -- from buying and shipping Honduran bananas to an Irish fruit firm.
He claims that Mr. Bakoczy oversaw an attempt to terrorize and kidnap him and that Chiquita arranged for phony court orders and used paramilitary forces to unload and destroy bananas.
Chiquita denied any wrongdoing and said Mr. Stalinski led an illegal effort to take bananas promised to Chiquita.
Those issues, however, were not before Judge Dlott.
