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Nigeria: Oil spill: Two Nigerian communities secure major legal victory against Shell in UK

Monicel
Nigeria: Oil spill: Two Nigerian communities secure major legal victory against Shell in UK

The Court of Appeal’s decision paved the way for the case brought by the communities of Bile and Ogale in Rivers State to proceed to a full trial, which is likely to involve the disclosure of crucial internal Shell documents.

Two Nigerian communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta have won a landmark legal victory against Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) at the Court of Appeal, the Court of Appeal has said. reported Leigh Day.

The communities, Bille and Ogale, both a State of Rivers in the Niger Delta in south-south Nigeria, launched legal action in 2015 in a UK High Court to hold Shell accountable for decades of environmental devastation caused by oil spills.

The appeal court ruling on Friday overturned a controversial decision by a UK high court in March that would have created an insurmountable legal hurdle for claimants, according to Leigh Day, a law firm committed to plaintiffs-only cases to ensure that people had the same access to justice as the UK government and big corporations.

More than 13,000 residents of Bille and Ogale had accused Shell of widespread pollution, claiming repeated oil spills from the company’s infrastructure contaminated their land, waterways and drinking water.

The spills, they allege, have made the land infertile and wiped out fish stocks, leaving them unable to farm or fish, their main sources of income.

Legal barrier removed

The Court of Appeal threw out the earlier ruling that treated the plaintiffs’ case as a “batch claim” because they have failed to link specific areas of damage to individual oil spills. The global claim is a type of legal action that is only used in contractual disputes in the construction industry.

According to a global claim, the Bille and Ogale communities would have had to prove that Shell was responsible for 100% of the pollution that has affected their environment, according to Leigh Day.

This meant that if there were other sources of pollution for which Shell was not responsible, each individual’s claim would fail.

The High Court’s March 2024 ruling required each of the 13,000 claimants to prove which specific oil spill or leak caused exactly which environmental damage at the start of the case, before any expert evidence was ordered or revelation

Leigh Day, the law firm representing the communities, called this an “impossibly high burden” on claimants.

If the ruling were upheld, it would be a major stumbling block for future environmental claims, due to repeated pollution incidents in the future, unless they could prove that the same polluter is responsible for all the pollution that has affected them.

By overturning that decision, the Court of Appeal cleared the way for the case to proceed to a full trial, which is likely to involve the disclosure of crucial internal Shell documents.

Speaking, Leigh Day International partner Dan Leader said: “Ten years have passed since these two Nigerian communities first brought their claims to the UK courts, and many of our clients have died while they waited for justice.

“Our customers have already had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to get a ruling that UK parent Shell plc is potentially responsible for the environmental devastation they have suffered. Shell has now tied the case up again in knots. and it has barely progressed since the communities victory in the Supreme Court in 2021.”

“We are delighted that the Court of Appeal has now struck down the issues to allow the claims to finally go to trial.

“Our clients were asked to indicate exactly which oil spill or leak caused which pollution incident on their land from the very beginning of their claims. However, the sheer magnitude of the pollution allegedly caused by Shell’s subsidiary has for many years made this an impossible task.”

“This is a landmark judgment for environmental claims going forward. Now that the ‘Bundled Claims’ test has been dismissed, claimants will be able to bring complex environmental claims arising from multiple and repeated polluting events without being required to prove the impossible.”

background

The legal journey began for Bille and Ogale communities almost It’s been 10 years, but progress has been slow. Many residents have died during the long judicial process. The initial victory for the communities came in 2021 when the UK Supreme Court ruled that Shell’s parent company could be held liable for environmental damage caused by its Nigerian subsidiary. Despite this ruling, the case has remained mired in legal technicalities.