Employer of 7 farmworkers killed in Madera crash settles federal labor lawsuit
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- Lion Farms settled a federal labor lawsuit, paying $89,886 in civil penalties.
- The company must pay $39,013 in back wages to 12 workers, some of whom died.
- The settlement followed the death of seven Lion Farms workers in a Madera crash last year.
A Fresno County-based farm has settled a lawsuit from the federal government that accused it of committing multiple labor violations, some of which the feds said “ultimately led to” a crash that killed seven of the farm’s workers last year on a rural Madera road.
In accordance with the settlement, Judge Kirk Sherriff ordered Lion Farms to pay $89,886.50 to the U.S. Department of Labor in “civil money penalties,” according to federal court documents filed Aug. 26. Lion Farms is based in Selma but also grows raisin grapes in Madera County, court documents say.
The company was also ordered to pay $39,013 in back wages that the feds determined the company previously failed to pay 12 workers, though several of those workers died in the Feb. 23, 2024, crash in Madera.
Early that morning, a van carried eight Lion Farms workers west on Avenue 7 to a company field when it was struck head-on by an eastbound pick-up truck that swerved into the opposite lane, according to the California Highway Patrol. The driver of the pick-up truck and seven of the Lion Farms workers died immediately, and one worker survived with serious injuries.
The deaths of the farmworkers — all Mexican immigrants and residents of Kerman — sent shock waves through the Central Valley’s agricultural and immigrant communities, providing another example of the risks farmworkers face on rural roads as they travel to and from job sites.
A Department of Labor probe followed and led U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Trump cabinet member who grew up in the Central Valley, to sue Lion Farms and its owners in March. She accused them of violating multiple provisions of the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA), a federal law that intends to protect these workers through established employment standards. The alleged labor violations included a failure to pay workers all the wages they were owed and unsafe employer-provided transportation.
“Defendants ... deliberately ignored MSPA’s requirements, which serve to protect workers from unsafe and unlicensed transportation to and from the fields,” says the complaint filed in March. “These violations ultimately led to a van accident that killed seven of Lion Farms’ field workers.”
Though Lion Farms agreed to the settlement, the agreement does not mean the company or its owners admitted to any of the allegations against them.
Lion Farms’ attorneys on Wednesday did not respond to The Fresno Bee’s request for comment about the settlement or whether the company has provided any monetary aid to the families affected by the crash.
Federal judge’s orders against Fresno County farm
The original complaint against Lion Farms says its workers were charged $13 a day for their transportation to-and-from fields, which a supervisor “organized and coordinated.”
On the morning of the crash, the document says, the supervisor knowingly instructed an unlicensed driver to transport himself and seven others to Lion Farms’ New Stone Ranch in Madera. The driver was one of the seven farmworkers killed in the crash. The Department of Labor’s investigation found that workers were not wearing seat belts and the van did not have the minimum liability insurance coverage.
The court ordered Lion Farms to follow federal law when the company decides to provide transportation to workers. If the company uses farm labor contractors that provide transportation, those contractors must be federally authorized to provide transportation, the order says. Lion Farms will also have to audit its practices for providing transportation annually for three years and send proof of the audit to the Department of Labor.
The company must also comply with legal payroll standards after the federal probe found the farm and its owners “violated and continue to violate (federal law) by failing to pay wages owed to migrant and seasonal agricultural workers when due.”
It must pay a total of $39,013 in wages owed to 12 workers. Several of the laborers on that list were killed in the Madera crash, and it’s not immediately clear whether the money they were owed can be allocated to their families.
This story was originally published September 17, 2025 at 10:01 AM.