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Legal Proceedings | 6 Months Ended
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Jun. 30, 2013
Legal Proceedings | 11. Legal Proceedings—Summarized below are litigation matters in which there has been material activity or developments during the three month period ended June 30, 2013. A. DBCP Cases—Delaware On or about July 21, 2011, an action encaptioned, Blanco v. AMVAC Chemical Corporation et al., was filed with the Superior Court of the State of Delaware in and for New Castle County (No. N11C-07-149 JOH) on behalf of an individual plaintiff, residing in Costa Rica, against several defendants, including, among others, AMVAC, The Dow Chemical Company, Occidental Chemical Corporation, and Dole Food Company. In the action, plaintiff claims personal injury (sterility) arising from the alleged exposure to DBCP between 1979 and 1980 while working as a contract laborer in a banana plantation in Costa Rica. Defendant Dow filed a motion to dismiss the action as being barred under the applicable statute of limitations, as this same plaintiff filed the same claim in Florida in 1995 and subsequently withdrew the matter. Plaintiff contends that the statute of limitations was tolled by a prior motion for class certification, which was denied. AMVAC contends that the plaintiff could not have been exposed to any DBCP supplied by AMVAC in Costa Rica. On August 8, 2012, the court denied Dow’s motion to dismiss based upon applicable statutes of limitation. In response to that denial, on August 20, 2012, defendants filed a motion for interlocutory appeal and, on September 18, 2012, the Delaware Supreme Court granted interlocutory appeal on the question of whether the State of Delaware will recognize cross jurisdictional tolling (that is, whether it is proper for a Delaware court to follow the class action tolling of another jurisdiction, in this case, Texas, rather than its own two year statute of limitations). Pending the ruling on appeal, the Blanco matter was stayed. A similar case (referred to as Chaverri in the Company’s Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2012) involving claims for personal injury allegedly arising from exposure to DBCP on behalf of 235 banana workers from Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama was also stayed pending the ruling. The Delaware Supreme Court heard oral argument on April 10, 2013 and on June 10, 2013, denied the appeal and upheld the lower court ruling in Blanco, holding that it was proper to extend the class action tolling exception to cross-jurisdictional class action cases. With that ruling, both the Blanco and Chaverri matters remain pending. AMVAC intends to defend both of these matters vigorously and, at this early stage of litigation, does not believe that a loss is either probable or reasonably estimable and has not set up a loss contingency for either matter.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for legal proceedings, legal contingencies, litigation, regulatory and environmental matters and other contingencies. + References No definition available. + Details
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