On January 16, 1992, migrant agricultural workers of Mexican descent filed a lawsuit against farm owner employers in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, alleging violations of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Workers Protection Act, 29 U.S.C.A. § 1801, et seq. and Washington State Farm Labor Contractor Act, RCW 49.48.010. Plaintiffs claimed that they were fired by farm owners because they sought legal advice from attorneys from Oregon Legal Services as to their employment rights. Plaintiffs were represented by attorneys for the National Employment Law Project. They sought declaratory and injunctive relief.

The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Defendants also moved to compel plaintiffs to attend depositions in the state of Washington, which the District Court (Judge Thomas S. Zilly) granted in part.

On February 24, 1993, Judge Zilly issued his order on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment, entering judgment for plaintiffs on several claims and for the defendants on others. Judge Zilly found that the farm owners had violated federal disclosure and recordkeeping requirements, and federal labor camp certification requirements. He determined, however, that the farm owners had not violated the Acts by using unlicensed farm labor. He reset the case for a pre-trial conference on the remaining claims. Escobar v. Baker, 814 F.Supp. 1491 (W.D. Wash. 1993).

Several weeks later, the parties notified the Court that they settled the case. Judge Zilly entered an order on March 8, 1993 closing the case in light of the settlement. The parties were given 120 days in which to finalize their settlement papers or to advise the Court if the settlement fell through. We do not know the details of the settlement as the agreement was not filed with the Court.

We have no further information on the case.

Erica Woodruff - 08/09/2007


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