FARMING Blueberry price-fixing lawsuit attracts small number of growers

ROCKLAND, Maine (AP) -- Fewer than 200 blueberry growers have filed claims for a share of a $5 million settlement in a landmark price-fixing lawsuit.
As many as 800 growers could have been damaged by the price-fixing, according to the growers' attorneys.
"The pool of growers gets smaller once you peel off those who opted out of the suit in the beginning," said attorney William Robitzek. "Then there are growers who are still scared to death to be identified with this lawsuit, because the list of payouts will be published."
The number of claims -- 176 statewide -- was disclosed Tuesday by Justice Joseph Jabars. The 4-year-old case is nearing an end after Allen's Blueberry Freezer of Ellsworth agreed to pay $1 million as its share of the settlement.
Growers who can show how many pounds of fruit they sold in each of the seasons between 1996 and 1999 have until Dec. 23 to join the lawsuit.
Now only formalities remain before growers begin recovering their losses, incurred during the years when processors colluded on the prices they would pay for the fruit each August.
The case, Maine's first class-action lawsuit, was decided last November when a civil jury awarded an $18.6 million judgment against Allen's, Cherryfield Foods of Cherryfield and Jasper Wyman & amp; Son of Milbridge.
Because the case involved antitrust issues, the damages were automatically tripled, raising the total to more than $56 million.
In a settlement, Cherryfield Foods agreed to pay $2.5 million, and Wyman agreed to pay $1.5 million, reducing the processors' payout to a more manageable $5 million once Allen's fell into step.
The fourth and smallest processor sued, Merrill's Blueberry Farms of Ellsworth, reached its settlement with the growers for $85,000 last October, days before the case went to trial.