| Federal Judge Rejects Chevron's Attempts to Avoid Liability for Alleged Human Rights Abuses |
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, CA-United States District Court Judge Susan Illston ruled late yesterday that Chevron cannot avoid a trial on allegations of human rights abuses in Nigeria by arguing that it is not responsible for the conduct of its subsidiary, Chevron Nigeria Ltd (CNL). Nine Nigerian plaintiffs are suing Chevron in federal court in San Francisco for deaths and other abuses in two incidents in 1998 and 1999, in which Nigerian military and police paid by Chevron and using Chevron helicopters and boats shot and tortured protestors and destroyed two villages allegedly associated with opposition to Chevron’s oil activities in the desperately poor Niger delta. The plaintiffs assert claims ranging from crimes against humanity to wrongful death. Chevron attempted to avoid trial in the lawsuit by suggesting that it was not liable for CNL's activities, but Judge Illston twice denied Chevron's motion in 2004, and yesterday rejected a third attempt to raise the issue again. In March of this year, Judge Illston also found that there was evidence that Chevron had assisted CNL in these operations, including that Chevron "approved payments from CNL" to the Nigerian security forces and that, "after the attacks, [Chevron] engaged in a media campaign to cover up CNL's involvement in the attacks." "Chevron has repeatedly tried to keep an American jury from scrutinizing its role in the deaths and destruction our clients suffered at the hands of its paid security forces, and we are pleased that Judge Illston has again ruled that the claims of these Nigerian protestors should be decided at trial," said plaintiffs' lawyer Theresa Traber, partner at Traber & Voorhees, who opposed Chevron's motion. "Chevron must face the fact that it cannot avoid accountability for these abuses through legal technicalities," said Marco Simons, U.S. Legal Director for EarthRights International (ERI), also counsel for the plaintiffs. The case is Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., No. 99-2506. In addition to ERI and Traber & Voorhees, the plaintiffs are represented by several private law firms including Hadsell & Stormer, and Siegel & Yee; the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Electronic Frontier Foundation; and Paul Hoffman, Michael Sorgen, Robert Newman, Anthony DiCaprio, Elizabeth Guarnieri, and Richard Wiebe.
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