A judge in the US has overturned an earlier ruling to award six Nicaraguans US$2.3m from the Dole Food Company, saying that the company was defrauded by the men's lawyers.
A jury ruled in favour of the men in 2007, when it was alleged they had been left sterile from pesticide exposure after working on Dole banana plantations.
But Judge Victoria Chaney found that fraud by the mens' lawyers was unfair on Dole, and she said one lawyer had used bogus banana workers in the case, the BBC reported.
In the original trial, it was argued that dibromochloropropane (DCBP) was used on Dole plantations in Central America in the 1970s, even though it was banned in the US at the time.
Last Thursday in the Los Angeles superior court, Judge Chaney said "there was massive fraud perpetrated on this court", adding that: "The plaintiffs have unabashedly tampered with witnesses."
She said Los Angeles lawyer Juan Dominguez found people to pose as banana workers for the trial and told them what to say during hearings.
A lawyer for the six men has said they plan to appeal against this latest ruling.
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