July 1, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Washington
Sakuma objects to legal fees CHS Primeland has open house for
claimed by workers’ lawyers its $18.5 million fertilizer facility
Reimbursing costs
final issue in suit
Hub to serve
100-mile radius
By DON JENKINS
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
Capital Press
A Washington berry farm
argues that the lawyers who
sued it and won piece-rate
pickers separate pay for rest
breaks should receive about
one-third as much in fees as
they’re seeking.
Sakuma Brothers attorney
Adam Belzberg proposed in a
court iling June 17 that fees
and costs awarded opposing
lawyers should not exceed
$87,785. The workers’ attor-
neys have asked a judge to
award $251,699.
The fees will compensate
two law irms that worked on
the precedent-setting case. The
state Supreme Court ruled last
year that piece-rate farmwork-
ers must be paid separately for
10-minute rest breaks. The de-
cision changed pay practices at
farms statewide.
After the decision, Saku-
ma retroactively paid work-
ers $87,160, plus 12 percent
interest, The average payout
per worker was $231, accord-
ing to court records. The two
sides have not be able to agree
on how much the winning law
irms will receive from Saku-
ma, leaving the matter to U.S.
District Judge Marsha Pech-
man.
In his iling, Belzberg
claims Columbia Legal Ser-
vices and Seattle irm Terrell
Marshall Law Group inlated
fees by billing for unnecessary
and duplicative work by four
CLARKSTON, Wash. —
CHS Primeland held a grand
opening ceremony June 23 for
its new $18.5 million agron-
omy hub plant at the Port of
Wilma in Clarkston, Wash.
About 250 people toured
the facility and heard about its
capabilities, as company lead-
ers said it would serve growers
for decades to come.
“Our goal is really to be
here, maybe for 100 years, but
we’re deinitely set up to be
here for 60 years,” said Ken
Blakeman, general manager of
CHS Primeland. “We’re really
trying to build this facility for
tomorrow’s producer.”
“I encourage you as a
producer to use this facility
as much as you can — wear
it out if you can,” said Tim
Eichner, chairman of the CHS
Primeland board of directors
and a Kendrick, Idaho, farmer.
“Ultimately, it comes down to
producers being able to beneit
from this. We did it so that pro-
ducers had options for supply
and pricing.”
“When we make an in-
vestment, it is for production
agriculture,” said Lynden John-
son, executive vice president
of country operations for CHS
in Inver Grove Heights, Minn.
“It is to add value to them in
their operations, to make them
world-class in their production
to compete globally.”
In picking the location, the
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Sakuma Brothers berry farm in northwestern Washington argues
in a federal court iling that lawyers who represented pickers in a
precedent-setting case that went against the business are seeking
far too much in legal fees.
attorneys and staff at the two
law irms.
Also, Belzberg argued the
judge should reject the irms’
request for a 19 percent bonus.
The irms argue they merit the
bonus because their lawyers
took on a risky case and did a
superior job.
“We strongly believe we
are entitled to that,” Columbia
Legal Services attorney Daniel
Ford said Monday in an inter-
view. “There was no guarantee
at all there would be a verdict
in favor of the workers.”
Belzberg called the claim
“disingenuous” because the
workers’ attorneys elsewhere
characterized paid rest breaks
for farmworkers as a “natural
extension” of existing state
law.
The legal fees are the
last unsettled piece of busi-
ness in a class-action lawsuit
against Skagit County-based
Sakuma, a family-owned
business started by Japanese
immigrants before World
War II.
Workers sued Sakuma in
2013 in U.S. District Court for
Western Washington, alleging
four pay violations.
An out-of-court settlement
resolved three of the issues.
Sakuma retroactively paid 408
workers a total of $500,000,
while two lead plaintiffs split
$6,000 and their attorneys re-
ceived $344,000.
The settlement did not
resolve whether piece-rate
workers would be paid sepa-
rately for rest breaks. Pechman
referred the issue to the state
Supreme Court, which ruled in
favor of the workers.
In May, the workers’ attor-
neys iled for legal fees. The
fees were primarily based on
the hours spent on the case by
the four lawyers, whose hourly
rates range from $250 to $400
per hour.
A hearing is set for July in
front of Pechman in Seattle.
Ford said the class-action
lawsuit involved a large num-
ber of workers, who spoke
different languages, and de-
manded lawyers with different
skills. He said he was coni-
dent he and his colleagues can
justify the hours they billed.
Matthew Weaver/Capital Press
CHS Primeland had an open house at its new fertilizer facility in
Clarkston, Wash., on June 23.
Blakeman
Eichner
company wanted to have river,
truck and rail access to provide
farmers with cost-effective op-
tions, Blakeman said.
“The facility is actually set up
so it can almost be unmanned,”
he said. “There will be a day
when you as a producer will be
able to show up here, with no
one here. This facility has the
capability for you to come here,
load your product and never
have touched anything, except
for your little card. ... You’d ac-
tually be able to show up, open
the gates, open the doors, punch
in your load, load your truck and
not have a single person (here).”
The distribution plant and
manufacturing facility has a
capacity of 24,000 tons of dry
fertilizer storage and 2.5 million
gallons of liquid storage.
Blakeman said the facility
will serve a 100-mile radius.
The company expects to grow
from 100,000 tons of total prod-
uct moving through the facility
to 150,000 tons over the next
ive years, he said.
Fertilizer
manufacturers
want to build inventory and ship
in a timely fashion. Without the
hub, the company didn’t have
the storage capacity when fertil-
izer prices were good or farmers
needed it, CHS Primeland seed
and agronomy division manager
Ken Mingo said.
“This facility gives us the op-
portunity to buy when the mar-
ket is right and have the product
on hand when a producer needs
it,” he said.
WDFW to buy forest, grazing land in Central Washington
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
OLYMPIA — Grazing
and logging will continue
on 3,613 acres in Klickitat
County that the Washing-
ton Department of Fish and
Wildlife will buy, according
to a state official.
The Fish and Wildlife
Commission on June 10
approved purchasing the
land for $1.98 million from
Western Pacific Timber.
The state also hopes to
buy approximately 15,100
acres in the Simcoe Moun-
tains from the timber com-
pany as money becomes
available.
WDFW prizes the land
for its habitat for Western
gray squirrels, spotted owls
and steelhead fish.
The land will become
part of the Klickitat Wild-
life Area. WDFW will man-
age the land with the Wash-
ington State Conservation
Commission and the East-
ern Klickitat Conservation
District.
WDFW Lands Division
Manager Clay Sprague said
the department also expects
to continue commercial ac-
tivities, though a manage-
ment plan has not been de-
veloped.
The land has not been
overgrazed or over harvest-
ed, Sprague said.
“I’ve toured the prop-
erty. I think (logging and
grazing) will be at least the
same,” he said.
WDFW owns or manag-
es approximately 1 million
acres.
Western Pacific Timber
is a privately owned com-
pany that manages about
150,000 acres in Idaho and
Washington.
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