San Francisco, CA-United States District Court Judge Susan Illston
ruled late yesterday that Chevron cannot avoid a trial on allegations
of human rights abuses in Nigeria by arguing that it is not
responsible for the conduct of its subsidiary, Chevron Nigeria Ltd
(CNL).
Nine Nigerian plaintiffs are suing Chevron in federal court in San
Francisco for deaths and other abuses in two incidents in 1998 and
1999, in which Nigerian military and police paid by Chevron and using
Chevron helicopters and boats shot and tortured protestors and
destroyed two villages allegedly associated with opposition to
Chevron’s oil activities in the desperately poor Niger delta. The
plaintiffs assert claims ranging from crimes against humanity to
wrongful death.
Chevron attempted to avoid trial in the lawsuit by suggesting that it
was not liable for CNL's activities, but Judge Illston twice denied
Chevron's motion in 2004, and yesterday rejected a third attempt to
raise the issue again. In March of this year, Judge Illston also
found that there was evidence that Chevron had assisted CNL in these
operations, including that Chevron "approved payments from CNL" to
the Nigerian security forces and that, "after the attacks, [Chevron]
engaged in a media campaign to cover up CNL's involvement in the
attacks."
"Chevron has repeatedly tried to keep an American jury from
scrutinizing its role in the deaths and destruction our clients
suffered at the hands of its paid security forces, and we are pleased
that Judge Illston has again ruled that the claims of these Nigerian
protestors should be decided at trial," said plaintiffs' lawyer
Theresa Traber, partner at Traber & Voorhees, who opposed Chevron's
motion. "Chevron must face the fact that it cannot avoid
accountability for these abuses through legal technicalities," said
Marco Simons, U.S. Legal Director for EarthRights International
(ERI), also counsel for the plaintiffs.
The case is Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., No. 99-2506. In addition to ERI
and Traber & Voorhees, the plaintiffs are represented by several
private law firms including Hadsell & Stormer, and Siegel & Yee; the
Center for Constitutional Rights and the Electronic Frontier
Foundation; and Paul Hoffman, Michael Sorgen, Robert Newman, Anthony
DiCaprio, Elizabeth Guarnieri, and Richard Wiebe.
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