Lawsuits Seek Millions From Flower Ranch : Labor: The district attorney and lawyers for 27 Mexican workers who say they were virtually enslaved at the Somis farm rely on an old anti-racketeering law.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office and lawyers representing 27 Mexican laborers who say they worked as virtual slaves at a Somis flower ranch filed lawsuits Tuesday that seek millions of dollars in damages from the Griffith-Ives Co. and its owners.

California Rural Legal Assistance lawyers filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles against ranch owners Edwin M. Ives, his wife, Dolly, seven former ranch overseers and an Oxnard man accused of smuggling laborers into the country to work at the 50-acre Somis compound.

All 10 defendants, except Dolly Ives and one former ranch foreman, also have been charged by a federal grand jury with criminal violations of the laborers’ civil rights. They have pleaded not guilty.

Scott Wilson, the Iveses’ attorney, said: “We feel that none of these violations have occurred, and I feel the company will be vindicated.” He declined to comment on specific allegations.

In their lawsuit, legal-assistance lawyers describe the ranch owners and their former employees as the “Griffith-Ives Peonage Ring.”

The suit maintains that Edwin Ives and his employees recruited workers from impoverished villages in Mexico, imprisoned them at the ranch until smuggling fees were paid, forced them to work for less than the minimum wage and coerced them into buying food and sundries at inflated prices from a company store.

“Defendants engaged in this fraudulent scheme repeatedly over the course of at least six years to exploit dozens, if not hundreds, of migrant workers,” the lawsuit alleges.

The suit is unusual, not only because of its claims of enslavement but because it invokes a federal anti-racketeering law passed more than three decades ago for use against mobsters, said Marco Antonio Abarca, an attorney for the laborers.

If violations of the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) are found, the workers could be awarded damages three times the $300,000 in back wages they claim to have lost, he said.

Lawyers’ fees, which may amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars, also could be awarded under the anti-racketeering law, Abarca said.

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael D. Bradbury, working in coordination with the workers’ lawyers, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Ventura County Superior Court that accuses Ives and his company of fraudulent business practices. It asks for penalties and fines that Bradbury said could reach several million dollars.

Under state law, Ives could be fined $2,500 for each violation. Bradbury said that theoretically each day worked by the 27 laborers could be a violation.

“We want to make sure they’re hit in the pocketbook and not just by the individual plaintiffs,” Bradbury said. “The message is that the full weight of the state is going to come down on people who conduct themselves in this manner.”

The district attorney said his office will assist the laborers’ attorneys--the CRLA lawyers and co-counsel from the Los Angeles firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson--as the county develops its case against Ives.

“We have a fact-finding capability they don’t have, primarily through law enforcement sources and contacts. And we intend to share whatever we discover,” Bradbury said.

Named in the laborers’ lawsuit are the Griffith-Ives Co., the Iveses, alleged smuggler Mauro Casares and former ranch employees Parmjit Singh, Rony Havive, Alvaro Ruiz, Najuum Issac, and brothers Pedro and David Pinzon. Former foreman Jose Sandoval is also a defendant, but he was not charged with a criminal offense.