Dole Food Company, Inc. Wins Court Rulings

Dole Food Company, Inc. today announced that Judge Victoria
Gerrard Chaney of the Los Angeles Superior Court found for Dole in the
Tellez case by dismissing all punitive damages and finding that "any
punitive damages award would be so arbitrary as to be grossly
excessive, and thus violative of the Due Process Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment" of the United States Constitution. Judge Chaney
further held that "viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to
plaintiffs, the evidence compels a verdict for (Dole) as a matter of
law." The plaintiffs had alleged that Dole acted with malice against
workers in the use of Dow Chemical´s agricultural chemical DBCP on
contracted banana farms in Nicaragua nearly 30 years ago.

As a result of this and the court´s other favorable rulings on
March 7, 2008, the original verdicts which totaled $5 million against
Dole have now been reduced to $1.58 million.

"We always have maintained that punitive damages are inappropriate
in these cases and would violate fundamental constitutional
principles," said C. Michael Carter, Dole´s executive vice president
and general counsel. "The rationale of Judge Chaney´s ruling clearly
appears to preclude the award of punitive damages against Dole in any
of the other cases pending in California, regardless of whether the
plaintiffs are from Nicaragua or any other foreign country."

As a result of these proceedings, the court found in Dole´s favor
against seven of the 12 hand-picked plaintiffs in the Tellez case; and
the court granted Dole´s motion for a new trial as to the claims of
one of the other plaintiffs. Only the compensatory verdicts for four
plaintiffs remain, subject to Dole´s appeal.

Dole is committed to a fair and reasonable resolution of claims by
male banana workers in Nicaragua, who meet minimum criteria consistent
with the reliable science. In Honduras, Dole, worker unions and the
Government of Honduras have implemented a successful program to deal
with these claims.