An innovative international class action claim has been filed in London against Shell on behalf of impoverished inhabitants of a Nigerian region affected by a large oil spill, potentially larger than the Exxon Valdez and Deepwater Horizon oil spill disasters.
Shell admitted liability in court documents for two significant oil spills occurring in the small Nigerian fishing village of Bodo. Bodo is located in the Ogoni region of the Niger Delta, with a population of 69,000 people. Two crude oil spills that occurred within months of each other in 2008 - due to equipment failure - severely damaged Bodo's waterways and those of surrounding settlements. The ensuing contamination was devastating for the local population, because the majority of the area's residents support themselves using the waterways.
To date, there has been no attempt by Shell to clean up the spill or repair the pipeline, and the environmental effects of the spill are worsening every day.
Proceedings had been brought in London's High Court - against Royal Dutch Shell plc and its Nigerian subsidiary company - as a last resort by Ogoni-based activists to force Shell to take accountability for the effects of the spill. Shell had previously offered the community compensation of £3,500 together with 50 bags of rice, 50 bags of beans and some other cartons of food - offers which were rejected by the Bodo community as "insulting, provocative and beggarly", but later accepted on legal advice. In the first case of its kind, Shell's Nigerian subsidiary has agreed to formally accept liability and concede to UK jurisdiction- thus ceasing the claim against parent company Royal Dutch Shell plc. The co-ordinator for the Centre of Environment and Human Rights in Nigerian city Port Harcourt, Patrick Naagbartonm, said "The news that Shell has accepted liability in Britain will be greeted with joy in the delta. The British courts may now be inundated with legitimate complaints".
Specialist personal injury and human rights law firm Leigh Day & Co are representing the Bodo Community. The firm has said in a press release that the oil spill had gone virtually unnoticed internationally until they received instructions to bring a claim against Shell in UK courts. Leigh Day & Co is a personal injury firm that specializes in individual's claims against organizations and corporations. While the fee arrangement for the Bodo case has not been disclosed, the firm takes most of their cases on a no win no fee basis.
In the same week, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) published a peer-reviewed scientific report, funded by Shell, on oil pollution in Ogoniland which factually supports the Bodo Community's claims. The report concludes that cleaning up the damage to Niger Delta from the spill will take three decades and cost one billion US dollars. Click here to go to the UNEP website and access the report.
This case is not the first piece of international litigation to arise from Shell's conduct in the Ogoni region. In 1995, campaigners who forced Shell out of the region were executed by the Nigerian government, and their family members brought proceedings in the US (since settled) against Shell's Nigerian subsidiary to hold it accountable for alleged human rights violations.
Shell, however, has a poor track record of complying with court orders issued against it in class action proceedings. It is appealing against a 2006 order to pay $1.5bn compensation to the communities of one Nigerian region, and is refusing to comply with a court order relating to another. Both of these proceedings were taken in Nigerian courts, so concerns about access to justice for the Bodo Community in their own country's courts may have been a significant motivation to file proceedings in the UK. Proceedings launched in 2008 by a group of Nigerian farmers and Friends of the Earth Netherlands/Nigeria are also ongoing in the Hague.
Click here to read an article in The Guardian on Shell's admission of liability.
Click here to see Shell's recent press release on the Bodo case.
Click here to see Leigh Day & Co's press release regarding Shell's admission of liability.