Chevron

A court in the Amazon Jungle of Ecuador ruled that Chevron is to pay $8 billion in a very heated environmental lawsuit. The Fortune 500 corporation has responded by declaring the ruling "illegitimate."

U.S. courts and international mediation have been introduced to this highly disputed matter and is closely observed by several oil companies for new precedents that may insight more massive claims.

On Monday, Chevron's statement gave no amount to be paid to the court of Lago Agrio. However, Pablo Fajardo, plaintiff attorney, stated that Chevron would pay $8 billion in reparation of damages to the court.

The initial demand was set at $27 billion, but further review lessened the charge.

An appellate court is set to review the case. Chevron stated, "The Ecuadorean court's judgement is illegitimate and unenforceable."

Natives in the Amazon Jungle in parts of Ecuador released that unregulated and environmentally harmful drilling practices by Texaco (purchased by Chevron in 2001) inflicted great damage to vast spreads of jungle and injured native peoples in past decades.

Judge Nicolás Zambrano casted the decision in Lago Agrio, a small town established as an oil camp in the 1960s, immediately ushered in a dramatic new set of appeals in a legal altercation that has carried on in courts in Ecuador and the US for almost two decades, setting indigenous peoples versus one of the world's most massive companies.

Chevron's disbursement “is one of the largest judgments ever imposed for environmental contamination in any court,” stated David M. Uhlmann, an professor and expert in environmental law at the University of Michigan. “It falls well short of the $20 billion that BP has agreed to pay to compensate victims of the gulf oil spill but is a landmark decision nonetheless. Whether any portion of the claims will be paid by Chevron is less clear.”

Both plaintiff and defendant agreed to appeal the ruling, possibly adding on years more of legal choke-holds in the case being eyed closely, which has already been covered by allegations of industrial spies and fraud, along with incredibly vengeful grudges among the many attorneys involved. Legal experts stated that the sum of the payments due by Chevron and the global coverage of the suit centered on environmental degradation is probable to insight similar cases.