Ecuador Government Criticizes U.S. Judge for Comments About Country's Court System

[Judi Lynn]

Ecuador Government Criticizes U.S. Judge for Comments About Country's Court System

In Legal Brief, Government Urges Appeals Court to Dissolve Injunction over $18 Billion Chevron Judgment

NEW YORK, June 20, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Ecuador's government has taken the extraordinary step of asking a U.S. appeals court to rein in New York judge Lewis A. Kaplan for his "belittlement" of their country's court system and for mocking the Ecuadorian indigenous and farmer communities who recently won an $18 billion judgment against Chevron, according to legal papers filed recently in New York.

In February of this year, the Ecuadorian private citizens – who are legally distinct from Ecuador's government -- won the judgment in the environmental lawsuit titled Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco after an eight-year trial. The case was tried in Ecuador at Chevron's request; before the judgment was entered, Chevron sold its Ecuadorian assets, forcing the plaintiffs to consider enforcement of any judgment in other countries.

As part of its strategy to obstruct any enforcement action, Chevron in February filed a completely separate lawsuit in New York before the Ecuador trial concluded asking Kaplan to find that Ecuador's entire judicial system is broken. At Chevron's request and without an evidentiary hearing, Kaplan quickly issued an injunction purporting to block worldwide enforcement of any potential final judgment.

Kaplan's ruling, which appears to be an unprecedented attempt to extend American judicial power outside of the United States, is under an expedited appeal before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York with argument set for September 12. Kaplan also ruled before an appellate panel in Ecuador was able to reach a decision on whether to affirm the judgment against Chevron

More:
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ecuador-government-criticizes-us-judge-for-comments-about-countrys-court-system-124204139.html

[naaman fletcher]

1. Sounds like the judge has got to go:

According to the filing, Judge Kaplan issued repeated court decisions that included wordings such as “so-called Lago Agrio plaintiffs,” and in one particular decision described the plaintiffs as “a number of indigenous peoples said to reside in the Amazon rainforest.”

When the lawyers for the plaintiffs took offense to the statements, Judge Kaplan indignantly repeated similar comments – revealing his lack of impartiality in the case for the entire world to see, when he opened the Recusal memorandum Opinion once again with the words, “the so-called Lago Agrio plaintiffs.”

He also referred to the entire lawsuit as a “game” on the part of the plaintiff’s lawyers.

The lawyers for the Ecuadorians are asking an appellate panel to remove the judge from the case for his obvious bias.

http://www.topsecretwriters.com/2011/06/judge-kaplan-belittles-ecuadorian-plaintiffs-in-chevron-pollution-suit/