Legal News

Slow but Thorough:Chevron?s Ecuadorean Battle Gets New Judges

By Ashby Jones

The seemingly neverending lawsuit between Ecuadorean indigeneous people and oil giant Chevron continued its seemingly neverending ways on Monday when three new judges took over to analyze the entire case. Click here for the WSJ story.

Milton Toral, Luis Legna and Alejandro Orellana were appointed last week by the Provincial Court of Sucumbios. They must analyze the whole process, including appeals submitted by two parties, before releasing a second ruling.

“This afternoon we will begin to study the process,” Judge Legna told Dow Jones Newswires Monday.

Legna added that because of the large, complex nature of the case, with more than 215,000 pages, “It is impossible to say how long we will take to release a ruling.”

In other words, expect the wheels of justice to continue grinding, but slowly.

The three new judges can ratify, modify or come out with a completely different opinion from the original ruling, that on Feb. 14 ordered Chevron to pay $9.46 billion in damages, including $860 million for the Amazon Defense Front, a coalition formed by the plaintiffs.

Both Chevron and the Ecuadorian plaintiffs appealed the ruling.

While plaintiffs appealed the ruling asking for the awarded amount to be increased, Chevron has said that its appeal is tied to the evidence, saying that the plaintiffs’ lawyers falsified data and pressured scientific experts to find contamination where none existed.

The plaintiffs have denied any fraud.

A second ruling could be appealed by either party before Ecuador’s National Court of Justice.

The 18-year old lawsuit against Chevron claims the company was responsible for oil contamination in Ecuador’s Amazon region. Chevron denies the accusations.

Chevron inherited the lawsuit in 2001 when it acquired Texaco Inc., which worked in Ecuador from 1964 until 1992.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).