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Posted on 12/31/2005 3:51:09 PM PST by DumpsterDiver
William Zirkle has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit accusing him and two other executives at the Selah-based fruit company of conspiring to hire thousands of illegal immigrants in order to keep wages low.
The executives admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement. The corporation, Zirkle Fruit, was not a defendant.
"Mr. Zirkle knows no one did anything wrong," Ryan Edgley, his lawyer, said Thursday. "Mr. Zirkle primarily wanted to put an end to the uncertainty."
The case was set for trial Jan. 9 before U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle.
Edgley said the defendants were concerned that even if they prevailed before a jury, the plaintiffs would appeal and the legal defense bills would continue to mount.
"Frankly my client's confidence in the system was shaken in this case," Edgley said.
Had Zirkle lost at trial, he and the other defendants, Gary Hudson and William Wangler, could have faced triple damages under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
The case obtained class-action status in 2004, which increased the number of legal workers potentially eligible for damages to 20,000.
Chicago lawyer Howard Foster filed the case in 2000 using RICO in a novel way. Although Van Sickle dismissed the case in 2001, Foster won at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002.
Foster could not be reached for comment Thursday. But he told a local radio station that the settlement was unique among the types of immigration cases he has brought.
Foster, who writes occasionally for an anti-immigration Web journal called vdare.com, is using RICO with mixed results. The U.S. Supreme Court could bring some certainty to the matter next year when it hears a case against Mohawk Industries. The Georgia carpet company is accused of hiring illegal workers and depressing the wages of legal workers.
Edgley said he wanted to go to trial and thinks the settlement will encourage Foster to sue more employers just to get them to settle.
"I was confident we were going to win," he said. "This only emboldens him to continue with what is really just a misuse of the system, in my opinion."
Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.
Zirkle has capitulated on the eve of trial, paying $1.3 million that will be distributed to 20,000 legally-resident workers (actually court documents suggest it will be 5,000 at the most) and, vitally, to their lawyers.
Zirkle's legal workers will get about an additional dollar for every hour they worked, compensation for the wage depression caused by competition from illegal aliens. The plaintiff lawyers, notably the heroic Chicago-based Howard Foster, will get a third or more of the total award in contingent fees and expenses.
The result: blood in the water that will attract the attention of America's shark-like plaintiff bar to the employers of illegal aliens. The Zirkle case is small, but the precedent it sets is huge. And Ed Rubenstein has shown that, while illegal aliens are not the pillar of the economy that is sometimes claimed, they may receive as much as one percent of GDP in wages - over $100 billion. If that came out of American workers' pockets, putting it back could earn trial lawyers over $30 billion in contingent fees and expenses.
I am delighted to see this bunch of thugs and bandits descend on the corporate crooks who employ illegal aliens at the expense of Americans. I think they deserve each other.
ping
A victory for our side.
BTTT
Tip of the iceberg.
Well, kind of.
I would much rather see the government enforcing the law, rather than lawyers whose approach has a lot in common with pirates and bandits. They will sue anyone who has a lot of money if they think they can win.
Don'tcha know, them shysters are just doing the work Republicans won't do . .
So would I, but they've been dodging that responsibilty for over 25 years.
... rather than lawyers whose approach has a lot in common with pirates and bandits.
Kind of like the government.
They will sue anyone who has a lot of money if they think they can win.
Politicians will take lots of money from employers of illegal aliens to help them win elections.
Badda Bing!
"Frankly my client's confidence in the system was shaken in this case," Edgley said.
Lovely. Mine (confidence in the system) has been restored.
This use to be a nice town.
Zirkle is a big employer,but I'm glad they got nailed.
We need more of this.
It would be nice to stop at the AMPM in the morning for a cup of coffee and not have to wade through 20 illegals.
Our schools are now over 50% hispanic.
ROFLMAO. Excellent!
bump for publicity
Money means nothing to these traitors. If a corporation knowingly hires illegal aliens, the top brass does a year of hard time for each occurence. It would stop real quick.
I have a college buddy who lives in Mt. Hood, OR. When I visit him, if it's over a weekend, I have to attend Mass in Hood River. The church is crowded with Mexicans, most of whom are probably illegal. At least they still go to Mass, but I wish they'd do it in Mexico.
ping
Should be jail time.
Rich people have more than us, but not more time.
A fine doesn't hurt them. Jail time does.
Wasn't he the nerdy kid on Family Matters?
Nope, that was Steve Urkel.
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