Ecuador

Indigenous leaders from the Ecuadorean Amazon have split with their American lawyer on having their pollution case against Chevron retried in the United States, Courthouse News' Adam Klasfeld reports: "Ecuador's rainforest residents have been defending a multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron from the oil giant's counteroffensive on three continents that label the verdict an extortionate 'shakedown.'"

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is considering whether to affirm a finding that the $9.8 billion verdict rendered in Ecuador against Chevron was procured through corrupt means. Chevron opposed a suggestion by one of the Second Circuit judges during oral argument that the case be returned to New York, while attorneys representing the indigenous leaders' original counsel were amenable to it. Now, apparently some of the Ecuadorian plaintiffs oppose that idea.

There are two key events slated for April 20 in the legal controversy between plaintiffs lawyer Steven Donziger and Chevron, which argues that Donziger used fraud to win a $9.5 billion environmental-pollution judgment in Ecuador, The Litigation Daily's Michael D. Goldhaber reports. An arbitration panel is going to hear a three-week trial on the merits of Chevron's claims under international law that Ecuador violated its treaty obligation to let foreign investors enforce their rights by colluding with Donziger. On the same day as the arbitration panel is supposed to start, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is going to hear arguments that the litigation "amounted to a racketeering enterprise, and that Donziger and his clients committed multiple frauds on the Ecuadorean court." The Second Circuit also is going to consider if the American racketeering statute can support a worldwide injunction.

Patton Boggs ended its role in the environmental litigation Ecuadorian plaintiffs brought against Chevron, agreeing to pay $15 million to the energy firm and expressing regret for its role in the case, the New York Law Journal reports. An Ecuadorian court rendered a $9.5 billion verdict against Chevron for pollution left in the Amazon, but an American federal judge ruled that plaintiffs attorney Steven Donziger corrupted the Ecuadorian judiciary in an effort to win his case, the Law Journal further reports. Patton Boggs' role included seeking to enforce the judgment around the world.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled that Chevron can sue law firm Patton Boggs "for fraud, malicious prosecution and making false statements to the New York court during the titanic legal battle between the U.S. oil giant and one of Washington’s most prestigious law and lobbying firms," The Washington Post reports.

Patton Boggs was hired by Ecuadorian villagers to come up with a strategy to enforce the $18 billion judgment won by plaintiff lawyer Steven Donziger against Chevron for polluting the country's rainforest, Reuters reports. (The award was reduced in 2013 to $9.5 billion.)

Last month, Kaplan ruled Donziger used bribery, fraud and extortion to win the multibillion-dollar judgment, Reuters further reports.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled that Steven Donziger and his co-counsel obtaind a $9.5 billion environmental judgment in Ecuador against Chevron by "corrupt means," The Wall Street Journal reports. The judge ruled that, while Donziger started legal work in the case to improve conditions where his clients lived, his co-counsel and he "engaged in coercion, bribery, money laundering and other criminal conduct," including ghostwriting an expert report for a court-appointed expert, WSJ also reports.

Reuters reports on a trial that ended this week in which Chevron is seeking injunctive relief against a plaintiff's lawyer and some of his clients. Chevron accuses "U.S. lawyer Steven Donziger of orchestrating an international criminal conspiracy by using bribery and fraud in Ecuador to secure a multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against the oil company," according to Reuters. The case resulted in a $18 billion judgment.

But one of Donziger's lawyers, Zoe Littlepage, said "'raw accusations and allegations are not proof. Steven Donziger may be a jerk. That's not a crime,"' according to Reuters.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is presiding over the equity case. Post-trial briefs will be submitted before the judge issues a ruling.

Reuters reports on a trial opening this week in which Chevron is seeking injunctive relief against a plaintiff's lawyer and some of his clients: "Chevron Corp will try to convince a U.S. judge this week that a group of Ecuadorean villagers and their U.S. lawyer used bribery to win an $18 billion judgment against Chevron from a court in Ecuador, in the latest chapter in a long-running fight over pollution in the Amazon jungle."