High Court Turns Down Plea by UFW : Labor: U.S. justices refuse to hear the union’s appeal of a $1.7-million judgment awarded an Imperial County grower.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down the United Farm Workers’ final appeal of a $1.7-million judgment in a 12-year-old case the union has said threatens its financial stability.

In a brief order, the high court refused to hear the UFW’s plea that it overturn the judgment in a lawsuit brought by Carl Maggio--a grower of lettuce, broccoli and carrots--over a bitter, violent strike in the Imperial Valley in 1979.

The ruling affirms a decision by a California Court of Appeal that the union was liable for property damage and crop loss because some strike leaders were “actively involved in instigating violence.”

Imperial County Superior Court Judge William Lehnhardt ordered that the UFW pay Maggio in 1986, after the judge concluded that strike leaders authorized and participated in the violence. Videotapes played at the trial show pickets carrying clubs and throwing rocks.

The UFW deposited the money into an account in 1987, and Maggio and his lawyers collected their payment in July as the UFW’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was pending. With interest, the award amounted to $2.3 million.

“Mr. Maggio has his money,” said Marcelle Mihaila, Maggio’s lawyer. “It is the end of this book--and it truly has been a book. It has gone on since 1979.”

In May, as union lawyer Dianna Lyons fought to block Maggio from collecting on the judgment and tried to recoup the money, she warned that the payment of the award “is going to be devastating” to the UFW.

She also said in an interview that the union’s only hope was that there would be “enough people in California and around the country who will care enough to help avoid the destruction of the union that the growers no doubt have hoped for.”

In a prepared statement, a UFW spokeswoman said Monday that she did not know how the ruling would affect the union’s finances. She quoted UFW President Cesar Chavez as calling the decision a “tragic though predictable miscarriage of justice.”

The high court rejected the union’s claim that the trial judge was biased because his wife worked for the grower. The union also contended that Maggio’s claim of financial loss was “bogus,” the spokeswoman said.

The ruling comes at a troubled time for the union, founded by Chavez, who long preached nonviolence, led consumer boycotts of produce and fasted to underscore his commitment to farm workers.

News reports have portrayed the union as having abandoned the plight of farm workers, and in its latest report to the Department of Labor, the union acknowledged a decline in income from dues.

The UFW report dated Sept. 17 shows the union received $1.09 million in dues and another $1.08 million in donations in 1990. By contrast, in its 1986 report to the Labor Department, the union said it took in dues totaling $2.2 million while charitable contributions amounted to $811,000.

The Maggio case began with the UFW’s 1979 strike against several Imperial Valley growers. One striker was shot and killed in a crime that never was solved.

Other strikers were wounded by gunfire and one was struck by a pickup truck. UFW pickets were accused of rock throwing, blocking access to fields and throwing star-shaped, barbed nails that damaged tires.