Los Angeles – The next phase of trial in Burmese villagers’ suits against the California oil giant for human rights violations committed in connection with the construction of Unocal’s Yadana natural gas pipeline will open tomorrow at 8:30 am in California Superior Court, 600 Commonwealth Avenue in Los Angeles. The trial brings together two cases pending since 1996: Doe v. Unocal and Roe v. Unocal, which were filed by separate groups of plaintiffs.

Plaintiffs have already won the first round, when the Court rejected Unocal’s attempt to apply Burma and Bermuda law. This next phase of the trial will consider plaintiffs’ evidence that the Unocal subsidiaries that are nominally involved in the Yadana project are corporate shells. “These are sham corporations created solely to allow Unocal to hide from liability,” said Judith Chomsky, cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is co-counsel in the case.

Irrespective of how the Court rules on whether Unocal’s subsidiaries were its “alter-egos,” there will be a third phase, as yet unscheduled, wherein plaintiffs will present evidence to a jury directly connecting Unocal to the brutal Burmese military’s use of forced labor, rape and murder while providing security for the pipeline.

“Unocal has repeatedly tried to stop this case from going to trial and has lost at every turn,” said plaintiffs’ counsel Dan Stormer, a partner in the LA-based firm of Hadsell and Stormer. “While this phase of the trial does not address the core facts of the case, it brings the plaintiffs one step closer to justice.”

“Burmese soldiers enforced a system of slave labor and committed horrible acts of violence on Unocal’s behalf,” said Terry Collingsworth, Executive Director of the International Labor Rights Fund, lead counsel for the Roe plaintiffs. Ka Hsaw Wa, Co-Director of Earthrights International, which is also co-counsel in the Doe case, added that “the methods of the Burmese military were well known, and Unocal knew when it joined the Project that these abuses were certain to be committed for its benefit.”

In addition to the case in state court, the same plaintiffs are suing Unocal in federal court, under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA). Those cases are currently on appeal in the U.S. court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The Ninth Circuit is considering what standard of complicity to apply in the case.

The State case being considered tomorrow involves the same allegations, but state law rather than ATCA will be applied.

Co-counsel includes:
Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun, De Simone Seplow, Harris and Hoffman; Judith Chomsky of Center for Constitutional Rights; Terry Collingsworth of International Labor Rights Fund; Dan Stormer of Hadsell and Stormer; Rick Herz of EarthRights International.