In the latest U.S. chapter of the long and hard-fought battle over claims of pollution and adverse health effects from oil development in the Ecuadorean rain forest by Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001), a potentially important court victory has gone to the so-called Lago Agrio plaintiffs. On Jan. 26, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued an opinion in Chevron v. Naranjo, ordering vacation of a preliminary injunction that prohibited the Lago Agrio plaintiffs from enforcing or preparing to enforce a potential Ecuadorean judgment against Chevron anywhere in the world outside Ecuador.
Background
The Chevron-Ecuador controversy first arrived in U.S. courts in 1993, when a group of Ecuadorean residents filed suit in the Southern District of New York, alleging a variety of environmental, health and other tort claims related to Texaco’s oil extraction activities in Ecuador. As described by the Second Circuit, “the conflict between Chevron and residents of the Lago Agrio region of the Ecuadorean Amazon must be among the most extensively told in the history of the American judiciary” (noting that an “underinclusive” Westlaw search yielded 56 results dealing directly with the litigation).
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