(1) Shell Plc & anr (defendants/appellants) v Alame & others (claimants/respondents) (2) Alame & others (“Bille Individuals”) and others (claimants/appellants) v Shell Plc & anr (defendants/respondents)
Tuesday 8 – Friday 11 October 2024
(1) By Appellant’s Notice filed on 16 January 2024 the Defendants appeal against the order made by May J dated 22 November 2023 allowing applications by the Claimant at a CMS.
There were a number of applications before the Court ,in particular an application by the Claimants to re-amend the particulars of claim (1) in the Bille claims by identifying further spills and (2) in all claims by the addition of reference to losses arising from illegal refining.
The case concerns damage allegedly cause by oil spills from assets operated by D2 in Rivers State, Nigeria. There are four sets of proceedings, all concerning oil pollution , including water and ground contamination, occurring in two distinct areas within the Niger Delta.
The Ds submit that the amendments permitted by the judge fundamentally change the scope, scale and underlying factual basis of the claims eight years after the claims were issued and up to twelve years after the relevant events occurred. The Rivers State Limitation law provides for a limitation period of five years.
(2) By Appellant’s Notice filed on 5 April 2024 The Claimants appeal against the order made by May J dated 15 March 2024 declaring that:
-the Cs’ claims are to be progressed on basis that they are global claims;
-the litigation cannot be tried through lead claims;
– instead there will be a wide-ranging trial to examine existence, extent and causes and consequences of oil contamination over three-year period in and around Bille (a region in the Niger Delta).
This is an environmental claim by 13,656 Nigerians under a GLO. They claim that their livelihoods have been devastated by oil pollution: infrastructure operated by D2 and owned by D1.
The claims, begun in 2015, concern chronic pollution, not a one-off catastrophe.
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Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4