Lawsuits & Judgments

Three Ecuadoran nationals who claimed to have contracted cancer as result of Texaco’s (a division of Chevron) oil field operations in Ecuador have filed two lawsuits against the US based oil company. One suit was filed in the US and the second was filed in Ecuador.

The US case was dismissed by a judge in the a Federal court in California who ruled that the case was fabricated. The judge was especially harsh on the lawyers in the case and singled them out as noted in a release on the Chevron website:

In granting Chevron’s motion for summary judgment and to dismiss as a sanction for fraud on the court, Judge Alsup delivered a sharp rebuke to the lawyers who brought the complaints against Chevron: “This is not the first evidence of possible misconduct by plaintiffs’ counsel in this case. It is clear to the Court that this case was manufactured by plaintiffs’ counsel for reasons other than to seek a recovery on these plaintiffs’ behalf. This litigation is likely a smaller piece of some larger scheme against defendants.”

The second lawsuit will continue in Ecuador where the same lawyers have brought the case there. In their defense, Texaco points out that their environmental programs in the region have met the requirements of the Ecuadoran government and that more than 1000 samples taken from the region as part of the case, reveal that the levels of contamination in the soil also meet the requirements of the the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Not surprisingly, the plaintiffs lawsuit enjoys more support in the Ecuador which could make it tougher for Chevron Texaco to fight.