A U.S. federal court late Wednesday afternoon denied Chevron’s attempt to have Nigerian victims of abuses pay the oil giant’s costs of litigation arising out of Bowoto v. Chevron, a landmark human rights lawsuit that went to trial last fall.  Although the jury found in favor of Chevron at trial, Judge Susan Illston found that making these victims pay Chevron’s costs “would have a chilling effect on future civil rights litigants.”  The court's order additionally recognizes that “this case was an attempt by impoverished citizens of Nigeria to increase accountability for the activities of American companies in their country,” and that denying payment of Chevron’s costs was warranted given the “extreme economic disparity between plaintiffs and defendants—Chevron Corporation’s fourth quarter net income in 2008 was $4.9 billion; full year 2008 net income was $23.93 billion.”