California IN BRIEF : KERN COUNTY : High Court Upholds Award to Farmers

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld an $11.1-million award to three Kern County farmers who sued the J. G. Boswell Co. for malicious prosecution. The high court denied a request by Boswell to review a 1988 Kern County jury’s decision that the cotton grower abused the legal process to silence political opponents. The fight began in 1982 over a referendum to build a canal that would have carried water from the Sacramento River to growers in the south. Boswell, which opposed the canal project, sued the three farmers for libel when they took out newspaper ads that claimed the company was trying to monopolize cotton farming by limiting water supplies. The growers countersued.