On Monday, a court in Ecuador finally issued a ruling in the 18-year-old case accusing Chevron predecessor Texaco of contaminating soil and groundwater in the Lago Agrio region of the Ecuadorian rainforest.
After receiving a series of expert reports placing Chevron’s maximal damages at $16 billion, $27 billion, and, most recently, $113 billion, the Provincial Court of Justice of Sucumbíos ordered Chevron to pay damages of at least $8 billion. Plaintiffs spokesperson Karen Hinton confirmed the amount, reported by Bloomberg and Reuters, in an e-mail to Corporate Counsel sibling publication The American Lawyer. Here’s the 118-page ruling (pdf), albeit in Spanish.
