Villagers move to appeal London court ruling that Shell can’t be sued in UK for oil spill in Nigeria

Leigh Day, a law firm representing villagers from the Bille and Ogale communities from Niger Delta region has vowed to challenge the Britain’s High Court ruling on Thursday that oil major, Royal Dutch Shell, cannot be sued in London courts over oil spill in Nigeria.

Dan Leader, partner at Leigh Day who had also represented Nigeria’s Bodo community in a different oil spill claim against Shell which ended in a $55million settlement in 2015, said in his reaction to the ruling, “It is our view that the judgment failed to consider critical evidence which shows the decisive direction and control Royal Dutch Shell exercises over its Nigerian subsidiary.”

The villagers had sued the company’s Nigerian subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) in British courts over alleged oil spill in their land.

But ruling on the matter, the British court said that the suit did not establish that Shell, the parent company, had legal accountability for SPDC’s actions.

The court said in its ruling,“The claimants have failed to demonstrate that the first threshold requirement – is there a ‘real issue’ between the claimant and the anchor defendants – is met.”

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SPDC’s general manager for external relations, Igo Weli, in his reaction to the court ruling said it hopes that “the strong message sent by the English court today ensures that any future claims by Nigerian communities concerning operations conducted in Nigeria will be heard in the proper local courts”.

While the villagers had contended that local courts would be incapable to hear their case and administer proper justice, Shell on the other hand had reasoned that the matter was a Nigerian issue that could be settled in a domestic court.

Shell went further to deny being accountable for the spills, arguing that they were caused by sabotage and illegal refining.

Meanwhile the same High Court had in 2016 ruled that a case brought by Zambian villagers against miner Vedanta Resources over environmental pollution could be heard in England.

The. Iberian suit against SPDC involves about 50,000 Niger Delta residents demanding for more than $2 billion compensation for about 20 years of oil spillages across their communities.

They had told the court in 2016 that they had failed in their attempt to secure justice in Nigeria, and that all aquatic and farm lands had been lost due to the pollution.

 

 

 

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