DuPont may be
liable for millions
involving Big Isle suit
HILO >> The DuPont chemical company could be liable for millions of dollars in damages because of a state Supreme Court interpretation of Hawaii law this week, said Hilo attorney Kris La Guire.
La Guire represents former state Sen. David Matsuura, his brother Stephen and four other nurserymen in a federal suit that says DuPont fraudulently induced them to accept a settlement for damage to their nursery crops.
The damage was allegedly caused by the DuPont fungicide Benlate in the 1980s.
In the settlement of a product liability suit in Circuit Court on the Big Island, David Matsuura received $1 million and his brother received $500,000. If the brothers had known DuPont was hiding facts, they would have sought more money, La Guire said.
DuPont went to the Hawaii Supreme Court for an interpretation to be applied in the brother's federal lawsuit, saying the strategy the company used in court cannot be held against it.
The company also argued that the Matsuuras cannot accuse DuPont of fraud in the settlement because the brothers knew the company could not be trusted anyway.
In a ruling issued Tuesday, Hawaii Chief Justice Ronald Moon clarified that both the trial strategy argument and the cannot-be-trusted argument have no basis in Hawaii law.
The U.S. District Court in Honolulu can now apply the clarified Hawaii law in a trial on the question of fraud, La Guire said.
DuPont's Hawaii attorney Warren Price could not be reached for comment.
