On September 10, a federal appeals court rejected the appeal filed in Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., a case in which EarthRights International (ERI) represents Nigerian villagers who were shot and tortured after protesting on a Chevron offshore oil platform. In December 2008, a San Francisco jury found that Chevron was not liable for the injuries to the protestors, despite the fact that Chevron had paid and directed the Nigerian soldiers and police who committed the abuses against unarmed villagers from the Ilaje ethnic group. A three-judge panel of the appeals court decided that the trial verdict should stand.
The decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, also located in San Francisco, is a setback for the victims of oil-related violence in Nigeria. Although ERI and its co-counsel argued that there were fundamental errors that should have required a new trial, the Court of Appeals disagreed, finding that the trial judge did not "abuse her discretion" during the trial. "We're disappointed that the Court of Appeals did not agree that the trial in this case was flawed," said Marco Simons, ERI's Legal Director. "Chevron used the trial to argue that the Ilajes were a violent people with a propensity for hostage-taking. Their strategy paid off in the end, but it does not represent justice."
The Court of Appeals also determined that the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA), a 1992 law that allows suits in U.S. courts against perpetrators of torture and extrajudicial killings, does not allow suits against corporations such as Chevron. This conflicts with the decision of another federal appeals court, which has allowed TVPA cases against corporations, and may ultimately require resolution by the Supreme Court.
ERI will continue to pursue justice for the Ilaje people who suffered abuses at Chevron's hands, and may soon ask the Ninth Circuit to rehear the case. The three-judge panel has the opportunity to revise or change its own opinion, and the full court could also vote to rehear the case "en banc," before a larger panel of eleven judges.
The appeal was argued in June by Theresa Traber, a partner at Traber & Voorhees in Pasadena, California. In addition to Traber & Voorhees, ERI's co-counsel on the Bowoto case include the law firms of Hadsell Stormer Keeny Richardson & Renick LLP, Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman LLP, and Siegel & Yee; the Electronic Frontier Foundation; attorneys Judith Brown Chomsky, Anthony DiCaprio, Robert Newman, and Richard Wiebe; and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
