LONDON – The Supreme Court of Great Britain said on Friday that a group of some 50,000 Nigerian farmers and fishermen could file a case at the London Supreme Court against Royal Dutch Shell for years of oil spills in the Niger Delta that polluted their land, wells and waterways.
Judges said there was a possibility that a parent company like Shell, which has its headquarters in the Netherlands, but a large British presence, could be responsible for the activities of subsidiaries like Nigeria’s Shell Petroleum Development Company, which operates in the delta region. .
The court rejected a lower court that said there was no case to be opened against Shell in Britain. On Friday, the judges said there was “a real problem to be tried”.
The decision is “a turning point in the responsibility of multinational companies,” said Daniel Leader, a partner at the British law firm Leigh Day, who led the legal team representing Nigerian communities.
Mr. Leader added that the trial would likely increase the capacity of “impoverished communities” to hold powerful companies accountable. In fact, courts in Western countries have recently indicated that they are increasingly open to hearing such cases. Last month, a Dutch court ruled that Shell was responsible for pollution in another case involving Nigerian farmers.
The Ogale and Bille peoples who are presenting the case in Britain say their lives have been destroyed by years of damage caused by oil spills in Shell-operated pipelines. Mr Leader said they were bringing their claims to Britain because the prospects for success in Nigerian courts were remote, since few lawyers would take a case and local potentates could claim money for any trial. He said that the local population had no access to legal representation and that, if the case were presented, it would probably take decades to reach a conclusion.
“At this point, everyone is dead,” said Leader.
Shell routinely attributes the damage to sabotage and criminal activity. According to Shell, Nigerian law requires it to pay compensation for spills caused by operational issues, but not for damages resulting from sabotage.
“The spills in question took place in communities heavily affected by oil theft, illegal oil refining and pipeline sabotage,” a company spokeswoman said by email on Friday.
Leader said a case is now likely to be brought against Shell in Britain, although he suggested that there may be more room for legal maneuver by the oil company in matters of jurisdiction. Unless Shell is closed, the case is likely to take another two or three years, he said. He declined to give an estimate of the damage that Nigerian plaintiffs can seek, saying the main problem is forcing Shell to clean up the leaks, something he said Shell did not do.
“These communities are chronically polluted; it affects every aspect of your daily life, ”he said.
Shell said the company’s Nigeria subsidiary cleaned up the mess “regardless of the cause”.
The company is also gradually selling its properties in the delta, preferring to drill offshore, away from where people live.