A California federal court judge ruled today that a human trafficking lawsuit against four companies, all of which supply seafood to retail giant Walmart, can proceed. The civil lawsuit, first filed in June, was brought on behalf of seven plaintiffs who were recruited from their home villages in rural Cambodia to work at factories in Thailand producing shrimp and seafood for export to the United States. Instead of the good jobs at good wages they were promised, the five men and two women allegedly became victims of human trafficking, forced labor, involuntary servitude and peonage. The defendants had filed a motion in August asking Judge John F. Walter to dismiss the suit; that motion was denied this afternoon.