On behalf of nineteen Nigerian plaintiffs in Bowoto v. Chevron Corp., ERI filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court today asking the court to hear the case.  Specifically, the petition requests that the Supreme Court overturn the decision in the case by the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which ruled that corporations such as Chevron cannot be sued for torture and extrajudicial killing under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA).

The litigation against Chevron arises out of an incident in 1998 in which Nigerian villagers occupied a Chevron offshore oil platform in the Niger Delta in order to protest environmental devastation and economic disruption caused by oil production.  After several days of peaceful protest, Chevron called in brutal Nigerian military and police forces to attack the protestors.  The security forces shot several protestors and killed two, including Arolika Irowarinun, whose family is among the plaintiffs in the case.

In December 2008, a San Francisco jury ruled against the Nigerian plaintiffs.  But the jury never heard the claim that Arolika Irowarinun was subjected to extrajudicial killing, because the court had ruled that Chevron could not be sued under the TVPA.  The only claim for Arolika's death was a wrongful death claim which, due to idiosyncracies of Nigerian law, required a verdict beyond a reasonable doubt.

The Ninth Circuit rejected the plaintiffs' appeal in September 2010, agreeing with the trial court that corporations could not be sued for torture or exttrajudicial killing under the TVPA; the court further rejected plaintiffs' petition for rehearing in February 2011.  This ruling is in conflict with cases decided by another federal court of appeals, the Eleventh Circuit, which has repeatedly ruled that corporations can be sued under the TVPA.

We do not expect a decision from the Supreme Court on whether it will hear the case until September or October.

Documents:
Petition for Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court [2]