Source: NASDAQ
QUITO -(Dow Jones)- The multibillion dollar legal battle between Chevron Corp. (CVX) and the peoples from Ecuador's Amazon region over environmental damages is entering a decisive stage.
Lawyers on both sides say the trial period has ended and Judge Leonardo Ordonez will now have to analyze about 190,000 pages of relevant documents.
The first ruling in the case, which began 17 years ago in courts in the U.S., and seven years ago in the Ecuadorian courts, could then be ready by March 2011.
Following the ruling, both parties will have several levels of appeal, up to and including Ecuador's Constitutional Court. The appeals process could add another few years before a final ruling is reached.
The legal battle between Chevron and Ecuador's plaintiffs has become increasingly entangled, but Thursday marked the end of a 45-day period given by the Lago Agrio court in Ecuador's Amazon region during which both parties were asked to submit their own damages assessment.
Ecuadorian indigenous groups sued Texaco in the U.S. District Court in New York in 1993, alleging the company polluted the rainforest and rivers, causing environmental damage and personal injuries as a result of its operations in Ecuador. Chevron acquired Texaco in 2001.
That court said the case should be resolved by an Ecuadorian court, and the plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in the small, jungle city of Lago Agrio, located in Sucumbios province.
Both sides have criticized each others' approach to the case.
Pablo Fajardo, who leads the Ecuadorian legal team for the plaintiffs, said Chevron complained that it did not have an opportunity to produce its own damages assessment, but when given the opportunity instead attacked the justice system. He said Chevron has sought to delay the trial process.
Chevron said that the Lago Agrio court didn't always respect due process and Ecuadorian law by allowing the parties to submit new damages assessments. It also denies any abuse of the legal process.
In the U.S., Chevron is also undertaking a legal offensive in various courts, where it has aimed to prove alleged wrongdoing by the Ecuadorian legal team.
Chevron spokesman James Craig said the U.S. court findings have provided evidence of fraud and corruption on the part of the plaintiffs' lawyers, who he says have submitted falsified technical reports, were involved in ghostwriting the court expert's report, among other actions.
The plaintiff's lawyers deny this accusation and say Chevron has launched a litigation strategy in U.S. federal courts to try to exhaust the resources of the Amazonian communities.
Chevron alleges that the plaintiffs' lawyers and technical team committed fraud by planning and writing an expert's report that said damages could be worth some $27 billion for environmental damage in Ecuador.
The plaintiffs have denied this accusation.
As part of its U.S. legal processes Chevron won the right last May to order Joe Berlinger, director of a documentary called "Crude," to deliver 600 hours of out-takes from the documentary.
Texaco Inc. operated in Ecuador from 1964 and in 1967 it formed a consortium with Ecuador's state-owned oil firm, Petroecuador. Texaco was in charge of the venture's operations until 1990, when Petroecuador took full operational control. Texaco left the consortium in 1992.
-By Mercedes Alvaro, Dow Jones Newswires; 5939-9728-653; mercedes.alvaro@ dowjones.com