Justice Joseph Jabar will decide when, how and how much the growers will be paid.

PORTLAND (AP) – Maine’s highest court has ordered a blueberry price-fixing case back to Superior Court where a judge will consider a proposed settlement between two blueberry processors and blueberry growers.

The Supreme Judicial Court’s action effectively puts on hold an appeal of last year’s jury verdict that awarded damages of $56 million to growers. Allen’s Blueberry Freezer of Ellsworth, one of the three processors in the suit, had hoped to have the appeal heard next week.

A Superior Court jury in Rockland last November found that three major processors – Allen’s, Jasper Wyman & Son of Milbridge, and Cherryfield Foods Inc. – conspired to fix the prices it paid hundreds of blueberry growers in the late 1990s.

All three companies appealed the decision to the supreme court, but Cherryfield Foods and Jasper Wyman last month agreed to settle with the growers under a deal worked out with a state mediator. Cherryfield agreed on a $2.5-million settlement, and Jasper Wyman agreed to a $1.5-million settlement.

Allen’s refused to settle the case for $1 million, instead choosing to continue with the appeal. Allen’s was prepared to argue next week that the whole case should be thrown out, said attorney Robert Keach, who represents Allen’s.

“The decision didn’t come as a surprise,” Keach said. “It simply allows the Superior Court to consider the two pending settlements. Nobody has lost an appeal.”

The settlement will now be considered by Justice Joseph Jabar, who heard the 11-day trial last year.

Attorneys for Wyman’s and Cherryfield will file a request with the judge to ask for his preliminary approval of the settlement. Comments or objections will then be solicited from members of the class action before a final hearing.

After that, growers will submit claims for what processors owe them for 1996 through 1999. Jabar will decide when, how and how much the growers will be paid.

William Robitzek, a Lewiston attorney representing growers, said Allen’s “has already said that they would object to the settlements by the other defendants. I suppose they now have the opportunity to throw a monkey wrench into the deal, if that’s what they want to do.”

He said if Allen’s came forward and offered to pay the recommended $1 million to settle case, he would have to go back to his clients for their approval.

“I don’t have any authority at this time to accept any amount,” he said.