NY Judge Rules for Chevron in Ecuador Case

ABC News ^ | March 4, 2014 | Larry Nieumeister

[La Lydia]

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked U.S. courts from being used to collect a $9 billion Ecuadorean judgment against Chevron for rainforest damage, saying lawyers poisoned an honorable quest with their illegal and wrongful conduct.

"Justice is not served by inflicting injustice. The ends do not justify the means," U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote. The judge said it was a sad outcome to have to rule that the Ecuadorean court judgment "was obtained by corrupt means," because it will likely never be known whether there was a case to be made against the San Ramon, Calif.-based oil company….

He said a New York City lawyer, Steven Donziger, and Ecuadorean lawyers corrupted the case in Ecuador by submitting fraudulent evidence, coercing a judge and arranging to write the multibillion-dollar judgment themselves by promising $500,000 to the Ecuadorean judge to rule in their favor….

In a statement, Chevron Corp. called the decision "a resounding victory for Chevron and our stockholders" and said any court that respects the rule of law will find the Ecuadorean judgment "illegitimate and unenforceable..."

The decision came in a lawsuit Chevron brought in Manhattan against Donziger and two of his Ecuadorian clients to prevent any of them from profiting from what the oil company characterized as a fraud...

[La Lydia]

Civil racketeering. Judge Kaplan found that New York lawyer Steven Donziger and his litigation team engaged in coercion, bribery, money laundering and other offenses in pursuit of the 2011 verdict. Chevron has said that Mr. Donziger and others on his team fabricated evidence and ghostwrote much of the original verdict. Next: Donziger needs to be criminally charged under federal RICO statutes.

[Louis Foxwell]

Sure. We can depend on the Obama regime to support the rule of law.

[mgist]

Good news

[La Lydia]

Yes, we will have to wait until the anti-Rule of Law crowd has been removed.