Cincinnati Enquirer subpoena over 1998 Chiquita story quashed

The Cincinnati Enquirer was subpoenaed on Sept. 25, 2020, for testimony and documents related to a story it published more than 20 years earlier on Chiquita Brands’ activities in Latin America. The legal order was set aside by a U.S. District Court in Delaware in January 2021.

The origins of the subpoena go back to 1998, when the Enquirer published a special investigative report on Chiquita, a fruit company based at the time in Cincinnati. The report included an article, written by lead reporter Mike Gallagher and Cameron McWhirter, about the company’s business dealings in Latin America.

It was later revealed that Gallagher had obtained some of the information for that and other parts of the series by illegally accessing Chiquita’s voicemail system, according to court documents and news reports. The Enquirer fired Gallagher, printed an apology to the company on its front page and paid it $14 million.

Then, in 2012, McWhirter and the Enquirer were subpoenaed as part of a new lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by individuals from Panama and Ecuador, according to court filings reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. The plaintiffs accused several companies, including Chiquita and rival fruit company Dole, of using harmful chemicals that led to personal injuries.

As part of that lawsuit, the plaintiffs in Ecuador requested a 1992 document from Chiquita that they said detailed the company’s ownership of banana operations there. The company contended that the document did not exist, stating that the only evidence for it offered by the plaintiffs was the 1998 Enquirer article, which had since been retracted.

In April 2020, the District Court denied the plaintiff’s efforts to compel Chiquita to turn over the document.

The plaintiffs — in a further effort to obtain the document — then issued the September 2020 subpoena to the Enquirer, ordering the paper to appear at a deposition and to produce documents related to the 1998 article, as well as information on Chiquita’s land ownership structure in Ecuador, information related to litigation arising from the 1998 Chiquita article and the illegally accessed voicemails.

They also requested documents related to a lawsuit Chiquita filed against the Enquirer over the 1998 report, as well as Gallagher and McWhirter’s personnel files. In addition, the plaintiffs subpoenaed McWhirter.

The Enquirer filed a motion to set aside the subpoena Nov. 4, arguing that it was overly broad, imposed an undue burden and sought confidential source information protected under Ohio law.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephanie Bowman ruled in favor of the Enquirer on Jan. 13, 2021.

The Enquirer did not respond to an emailed request for comment.