ChevronTexaco Can be Sued for Role in Military Attacks, Judge Says

RIGZONE.com ^ | 3/26/2004

[SwinneySwitch]

A federal judge said ChevronTexaco could be sued by Nigerians in an U.S. court for the actions of a subsidiary in Nigeria.

Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said jurors had enough evidence to determine whether the company had indirect liability over the coordination between Chevron Nigeria and the Nigerian military when it brutally ended a protest over environmental and hiring practices on an offshore oil platform in 1998 and 1999 (Karen Gullo, Bloomberg/Oakland Tribune).

Proponents of the trial said the company knew about the situation in Nigeria. "They had their hand on the pulse of what was going on in Nigeria because it affected profits," said plaintiffs' lawyer Theresa Traber (Douglass/Girion, Los Angeles Times).

"ChevronTexaco continues to believe that the Nigerians who unlawfully occupied an offshore drilling platform and held some 200 Nigerian and expatriate workers hostage for three days have no basis in fact or in law to claim that their rights were violated when the Nigerian military restored order," said the company in a statement (Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle).

The case is similar to a case brought against Unocal Corp. by Burmese villagers in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Fifteen villagers accused the oil-and-gas company in 1996 of human rights abuses, saying Unocal worked with the brutal military regime in Myanmar -- formerly Burma -- to find and control laborers. A federal judge dismissed the suit in December 2000, saying it was not apparent Unocal conspired with the military. The 2000 ruling allowed villagers to try their case in California state court (Greenwire, June 13, 2002). (All cites March 26 unless noted.)

[SwinneySwitch]

Will terrorists sue us next for their dead in the WTC, PA, and Pentagon attacks?

[af_vet_rr]

"ChevronTexaco continues to believe that the Nigerians who unlawfully occupied an offshore drilling platform and held some 200 Nigerian and expatriate workers hostage for three days have no basis in fact or in law to claim that their rights were violated when the Nigerian military restored order," said the company in a statement (Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle).

If ChevronTexaco is successfully sued, then the terrorists have won. Plain and simple, it comes down to the terrorists having more rights than their hostages if they are allowed to sue CT.

[Eva]

Would this be the infamous 9th district court?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

Does this mean it is Texaco that has been sending me all of those letters from Nigeria? If it is, I say sue the bastards!

[NativeNewYorker]

The Hon. Susan Illston U. S. District Court, San Francisco, CA

Judge Illston was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in May, 1995, and before then she was a partner in the law firm of Cotchett Illston & Pitre, in Burlingame, CA, specializing in civil litigation practice, with an emphasis on commercial litigation. Judge Illston is a member of various professional organizations, including the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Board of Trial Advocates.

Clinton-era appointee.

[marron]

Oil companies are always targets for shakedowns and political demonstrations. They have no control over the behavior of government forces deployed to protect them. None.

But if the government can't protect them, there is no investment in the country, and no one is safe.

This is just another shakedown, but this time by American trial lawyers. These people were harmed, if they were harmed, by security forces of their own country. That is where they have cause for action. In their interaction with the oil company, it is Chevron and Chevron's employees (mostly Nigerian) that are the victims, and if it could be determined who organized these people, and where the money came from (probably there will be Euro NGO money involved) then they should be able to go after them.