U.S.-based attorneys suing Texaco over oil drilling damage in the Ecuadorian Amazon plan to appeal a New York federal judge’s decision to dismiss the case, originally filed in 1994. New York federal judge Jed Rakoff ruled last month that the case against Texaco doesn’t belong in a U.S. court and should instead be litigated in Ecuador. Attorneys representing rainforest Indians who claim Texaco damaged their lands had argued that Ecuador’s legal system is corrupt and ill-prepared to handle a complex environmental lawsuit. The suit alleged that from 1972 to 1992, Texaco improperly dumped oil drilling wastes in unlined pits rather than using the standard industry practice of reinjection, or pumping the wastes deep underground into emptied wells. The wastes fouled the region’s air... [Log in to read more]
