The United Kingdom’s Supreme Court has ruled that oil-polluted Niger Delta communities can sue Shell subsidiaries in Nigeria in English courts.
The decision is a victory for the communities after a five-year battle, and overturns a Court of Appeal ruling.
The Niger Delta communities, with a population of well over 35million people say decades of pollution and degradation have severely affected their lives, health and local environment.
The oil giant had argued that it was only a holding company for a firm that should be judged under Nigerian law.
However, the Supreme Court, the UK’s final Appeal Court for civil cases, ruled that the cases brought by the Bille community and the Ogale people of Ogoniland against Royal Dutch Shell were arguable and could proceed in the English courts.
Both communities in Rivers State amass a population of approximately 48,000 people.
While Bille is located in the heartland of the Kalabari Kingdom, a predominantly riverine area; the Ogale community is situated in Eleme LGA, one of the four Ogoni LGAs in the state, captured by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) scientific study of over 50 years of oil pollution in the Ogoniland.
Royal Dutch Shell did not dispute that pollution had been caused, but argued that it could not be held legally responsible for its Nigerian subsidiary.
Shell is responsible for about 50 per cent of the Nigeria’s oil production.
Last year, the Court of Appeal agreed with the company, but the Supreme Court said, last Friday that that decision was flawed.
The communities, represented by law firm Leigh Day, argued Shell owed a common law duty of care to individuals who had suffered serious harm as a result of the systemic health, safety and environmental failings of one of its overseas subsidiaries.
In 2011, the UN concluded that it would take 30 to 35 years to clean-up the vast amounts of pollution in the Niger Delta.
The Ogale community of about 40,000 people are mostly fishermen or farmers who rely on Ogoniland’s waterways.
Conversely, Bille community has an approximately 8,000 people in the coastal fringes of Rivers State.
But pollution has all but destroyed fishing, turning their lush home into a toxic wasteland.
There have been, at least, 40 oil spills from Shell’s pipelines since 1989, lawyers say Shell’s records reveal.
The UN scientists have found an 8cm (3 inch) layer of refined oil floating on top of water that supplies the community’s drinking wells – vastly higher than is legally permitted.
The water is now too dirty for people to drink.
Despite promises to provide clean water, people must often either shell out for bottled water or drink from contaminated sources.
Thick crusts of ash and tar cover the land where oil spills have caused fires.
Planting new vegetation to replace burnt crops or plants is almost impossible.
A farmer, Damiete Sanipe, described the area as a wasteland where the trees and the mangrove have been destroyed.
“The habitat is gone; the river we used to swim in is gone. For a coastal community whose life revolved around the water, it’s all gone.
“I don’t think money can bring back what we have lost. Even if they want to revive the mangrove, it will take more than 30 years which is a long time.”
On Friday, Leigh Day lawyer, Daniel Leader, said the ruling was a “watershed” for “impoverished communities seeking to hold powerful corporate actors to account”.
The firm said the amount of compensation sought had yet to be determined.
In a statement, Shell said, “The spills at issue happened in communities that are heavily impacted by oil theft, illegal oil refining, and the sabotage of pipelines.”
It said that, despite the causes of the pollution, its subsidiary had worked hard to both clean-up and prevent spills.
It’s the latest in a run of international and domestic law suits over Shell’s oil extraction in Nigeria.
In 2015, it accepted responsibility for two spills and agreed to pay £55million ($76million) to the Bodo community and assist in the clean-up.
In 2006, a Nigerian court ordered the company and partners to pay $1.5billion to the Ijaw people of Bayelsa State for environmental degradation in the area.
In an ongoing civil case, the widows of four environmental activists executed by Nigeria’s military regime in 1995 are suing Shell for allegedly providing support to the military.
The Shell denies the claims.
The decision, last Friday, is the latest case to test whether multinational companies can be held accountable for the acts of overseas subsidiaries.
Reacting, Amnesty International welcomed the ruling.
The Director of Amnesty International’s Global Issues Programme, Mark Dummett, said the fight had not yet been won, but added, “This landmark ruling could spell the end of a long chapter of impunity for Shell and for other multinationals who commit human rights abuses overseas.”
Leigh Day also represented 2,500 Zambian villagers in their pollution case against UK-based mining giant Vedanta Resources.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled in their favour, and they won an undisclosed settlement.