Supreme Court will hear Chevron appeal over Ecuador environmental damages case

OTTAWA – The Supreme Court of Canada has agreed to hear an oil company’s appeal of a lower court decision that allowed a group of Ecuadorian villagers to seek billions in damages for environmental pollution.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled in December that the group, which wants Chevron Canada to be held responsible for a multi-billion-dollar judgment awarded in Ecuador, can have their case heard in Ontario.

The appeal court acknowledged the chances of the villagers winning their suit is small, but said they could proceeded anyway

The appeal judges overturned a lower court, which found the company’s Canadian arm should not be on the hook for the judgment because their assets are not directly owned by the California-based multinational.

In 2011, an Ecuadorian judge ordered Chevron Corp. to pay US$19 billion for contamination of an Amazon rainforest by Texaco, which Chevron bought in 2001.

In November, Ecuador’s highest court upheld the judgment but lowered the amount to US$9.51 billion.