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Mazzoni Farms6/8/2000
We have for review the following two questions of Florida law certified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to be determinative of a cause pending in that court and for which there appears to be no controlling precedent.
(1) DOES A CHOICE-OF-LAW PROVISION IN A SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT CONTROL THE DISPOSITION OF A CLAIM THAT THE AGREEMENT WAS FRAUDULENTLY PROCURED EVEN IF THERE IS NO ALLEGATION THAT THE CHOICE-OF-LAW PROVISION ITSELF WAS FRAUDULENTLY PROCURED?
(2) IF FLORIDA LAW APPLIES, DOES THE RELEASE IN THESE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS BAR PLAINTIFFS' FRAUDULENT INDUCEMENT CLAIMS?
We have jurisdiction. See art. V, ยง 3(b)(6), Fla. Const. For the reasons discussed below, we answer the first certified question in the affirmative and the second certified question in the negative with respect to the plaintiffs whose causes of action are controlled by Florida law.
This case involves the consolidated cases of Mazzoni Farms, Inc. v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co., 166 F.3d 1162 (11th Cir. 1999) and Foliage Forest, Inc. v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Co., 172 F.3d 1284 (11th Cir. 1999). The Mazzoni plaintiffs, Jack Martin Greenhouses (JMG) and Mazzoni Farms, Inc. (Mazzoni), and the Foliage plaintiffs, Foliage Forest, Inc. (Foliage), Castleton Gardens, Inc. (Castleton), Country Joe's Nursery, Inc. (Country Joe), Palm Beach Greenery, Inc. (PBG), and Morningstar Nursery, Inc. (Morningstar), are commercial plant nurseries who sued defendants, E.I. DuPont De Nemours and Company and Crawford & Company (DuPont), alleging that defendants fraudulently induced them into settling products liability claims for mass destruction of trees and plants in their nurseries. DuPont manufactures and sells to plant nurseries fungicides, including Benlate - the fungicide alleged to have caused property damage to plants in these nurseries.
In the early 1990s, JMG and Mazzoni sued DuPont asserting products liability claims based on property damage and actual fraud claims based on DuPont's alleged concealment of Benlate's defects. JMG and Mazzoni, however, settled these claims with DuPont. The settlement agreements released DuPont from all claims, whether known or unknown, and contained a choice-of-law provision stating that Delaware law governed the release. The agreement further provided that the nurseries would not commence any action "based upon or in any way related to" the released claims. Mazzoni Agreement at 2, para. 3; JMG Agreement at 2, para. 3). In addition, the nurseries warranted that they "freely and voluntarily executed release." Id. at 5, para. 10. Foliage and Castleton executed releases that were identical to the Mazzoni and JMG agreements.
Morningstar, PBG, and Country Joe, however, executed releases that were different in two material respects. First, their agreements (hereinafter Morningstar Agreement, PBG Agreement, and Country Joe Agreement respectfully) did not contain a Delaware choice-of-law provision. Second, their agreements contained narrower release language. These nurseries discharged DuPont "from any and all claims, actions, causes of action, including consequential damages, demands, rights, damages, costs, losses, and any other liability or expense of whatsoever kind, which the undersigned . . . now has or may or shall have by reason of the use of or application of DuPont Benomyl products." Morningstar Agreement at 1; PBG Agreement at 1; Country Joe Agreement at 1.
After executing the releases, the nurseries discovered information which led them to believe that DuPont intentionally concealed the value of the nurseries' claims to induce settlement. Specifically, the nurseries alleged that DuPont ha
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