Ecuadorians set to press appeal against oil giant Chevron over US$9.5B award
TORONTO — Ecuadorian villagers are set this week to try again to hold Chevron Canada legally liable for a huge award against the oil company’s U.S.-based parent for what they say are the serious health effects they suffered from devastating environmental pollution decades ago.
The villagers will be asking Ontario’s top court to upend an earlier ruling that they cannot go after the Canadian company for the US$9.5-billion award they won in Ecuador against Chevron Corp.
The hearing on Tuesday and Wednesday before the Ontario Court of Appeal is the latest tangle in the intense, take-no-prisoners litigation — and public relations war — fought over years and in several countries. However, it could also prove fatal to the Ecuadorian attempt to involve Canada in the protracted battle in which both sides accuse the other of acting criminally or playing legally and ethically dirty tricks.
The appeal turns on a judgment from January 2015 when Superior Court Justice Glenn Hainey threw out the villagers’ case on the basis that Chevron Corp. and Chevron Canada are two distinct entities, and that the latter can’t be held liable for the debts of the former. The plaintiffs, in other legal words, could not “pierce the corporate veil,” Hainey ruled.