Legal News

Jury finds Chevron not liable for villagers' deaths in Nigeria

By Richard Binder

After years of motion practice and a five-week trial, a federal jury in San Francisco took roughly two days to exonerate Chevron Corp. for a decade-old bloody debacle in Nigeria.

In 1998, villagers from the Ilaje tribe sailed out to the Parabe oil platform off the coast of Nigeria to carry out what they claim was a peaceful protest. However, Chevron argued that the villagers planned to take hostages. Thus the company believes it was justified in calling the Nigerian military, which landed on the platform and started shooting. Several villagers were killed or wounded. Plaintiffs tried to convince jurors that the military acted as an agent of Chevron, and that the company should be liable for its actions.

Villagers-turned-plaintiffs came away completely empty-handed Monday as the seven-man, two-woman jury denied all of their claims, including those for torture and wrongful death. The case was one of the first brought in an American court under the Alien Tort Claims Act.

Read the full Recorder story.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on December 02, 2008 (boomark / email).