The court of appeals reversed a district court judgment and remanded the action for further proceedings. The court held that a district court erred in dismissing an action on forum non conveniens grounds without mitigating conditions where the corporate defendant failed to meet its burden of demonstrating that Peru was a more convenient forum than California for the plaintiffs’ environmental pollution claims and the court gave insufficient weight to the strong presumption in favor of a domestic plaintiff’s choice of forum.
Tomas Carijano and other members of the Achuar indigenous people depended for their existence upon the rainforest lands and waterways along the Rio Corrientes in the northern region of Peru. Carijano and Amazon Watch, a California corporation, sued Occidental Petroleum Corporation in California state court for environmental contamination and release of hazardous waste. The complaint alleged that for decades Occidental knowingly used out-of-date methods in its petroleum operations, discharging toxic oil byproducts into waterways relied upon by the Achuar for drinking, washing, and fishing. The complaint alleged common law negligence, strict liability, battery, medical monitoring, wrongful death, fraud and misrepresentation, public and private nuisance, trespass, and intentional infliction of emotional distress, as well as a violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law.
