KOTA BARU, Sept 22 (NSTP): Three hundred and fifty-four settlers of FeldaKemahang 3 in Tanah Merah today filed a suit against Felda and two othersfor allegedly understating the quality of their oil palm fruits, causingthem to suffer losses since 1995.The writ of their summons was filed at the High Court registry by lawyersAsmadi Abu Bakar and Wan Rohimi Wan Daud.Also present were representatives of the settlers led by the chairman oftheir Jawatankuasa Tuntutan Suara Hati, Awang Soh Mamat.Felda has been named the first defendant, Felda Kemahang 3 manager IbrahimIsmail and Felda Palm Industries Sdn Bhd, the second and third defendantrespectively.In their writ, the plaintiffs said they were settlers of Felda Kemahang 3in Tanah Merah, which was opened in 1983.They claimed that they discovered a fraud and/or conspiracy in thetransactions of the palm oil fruits by the second defendant and/or thefirst defendant to the third defendant on their behalf in Sept 2001.The discovery, they said, was made by one of the plaintiffs who found aoriginal copy of the "Akuan Penerimaan Berat Timbang Sawit" issued by thethird defendant stating that the seller agreed that the Oil ExtractionRate (OER) was less than 18 per cent and the selling of the oil was basedon the agreement of both buyer-seller.The settlers said they never agreed to sell the fruits at below the 18 percent Oil Extraction Rate.They said the OER of less than 18 per cent is wrong, not accurate andagainst the grade issued by the Malaysian Oil Palm Board.The plaintiffs said the fraud and/or conspiracy had caused their OER to bedecreased by between two and three per cent for each tonne, causing themto lose between RM30 to RM50 for each tonne sold to the third defendant.