A French appeals court on Tuesday rejected an appeal to enforce compensation for Nicaraguan banana workers harmed by pesticides.

The Paris appeals court released a judgment stating that “the sums awarded to each claimant… are manifestly disproportionate.” This confirmed the decision of the court of first instance.

The case was first brought by workers from the Chinandega province of Nicaragua, who worked on banana plantations owned by the Dole Fruit Company in the 1970s and 1980s. They claimed that they had been harmed by exposure to the pesticide “Nemagon” (also known as DBCP), with potential effects including sterility, respiratory disease, and cancer. The pesticide was produced by the Dow Chemical Company and Shell Oil and was banned in the US in 1979. It, however, continued to be exported to Nicaragua until the mid-1980s.

A Nicaraguan court ruled in favor of the workers in 2006, ordering Dole, Dow, and Shell to pay $805 million in damages. The companies subsequently removed their assets from Nicaragua, preventing the judgment from being enforced. Subsequent efforts to collect damages in the US were unsuccessful, prompting legal representatives of the workers to bring the case in France in 2018. Many of the original plaintiffs have died awaiting compensation.

France can judge cases from foreign jurisdictions under the principle of “exequatur,” enshrined in article 509 of the Code on Civil Procedure. It requires that the original court has jurisdiction, that the decision aligns with international public policy, and that there was no fraud. The level of damage was judged to contravene public policy.

Raphael Kaminsky, the lawyer representing the banana workers, described the decision as an “error of judgment” and stated that they would pursue the case until the Court of Cassation.