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which was allegedly caused by Benlate. Around September or
October 1991, a representative of du Pont inspected the orchid
plants in Mr. Henry's possession and informed him that those
plants had been damaged by Benlate. Mr. Henry decided to, and
did, cease making business sales of orchid plants by Fred Henry's
Paradise of Orchids in October 1991, at which time he had between
100 and 150 orchid plants that were in salable condition. After
Mr. Henry decided to stop making orchid business sales in October
1991, he did not receive requests to sell orchid plants, to
exhibit them, or to make presentations to orchid societies and
other similar groups.
Beginning in 1991 and continuing into 1992, du Pont made
payments that it referred to as assistance payments (assistance
payments) to persons who filed claims (claimants) with du Pont
for alleged damage caused by Benlate. The intention of du Pont
in making the assistance payments was to assist the claimants to
pay bills and other expenses that they had difficulty in paying
as a result of the alleged damage to their businesses caused by
Benlate, to help reestablish their businesses, to mitigate
losses, and for goodwill. Du Pont made an assistance payment to
a claimant only after having received a claim from that claimant
and having it evaluated by Crawford, its claims adjustor. It was
du Pont's rule of thumb to limit an assistance payment to one-
third of the amount of any anticipated settlement between it and
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