Chevron Hit With $19 Million Judgment After Jury Rejects John Connor’s Testimony

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Business Wire

October 12, 2010 03:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time

Amazon Defense Coalition: Chevron’s Lead Ecuador Expert Suffers Major Blow to Credibility in U.S. Trial, Court Documents Say
Chevron Hit With $19 Million Judgment After Jury Rejects John Connor’s Testimony

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--John Connor, Chevron’s lead American expert in its multi-billion dollar Ecuador environmental trial, suffered a major blow to his credibility when a U.S. jury rejected his testimony and delivered a $19 million judgment against the oil giant for causing mental retardation to several Mississippi residents exposed to its leaking gas tanks, according to court papers provided this week by lawyers on the case.

In the trial -- which took place in Jefferson County, Mississippi -- Connor conceded on cross-examination that over almost two decades of work for Chevron he has never once concluded that the impact of his client’s operations has harmed even a single person, according to the court documents. Connor testified that he knew of no circumstance where “there were any injuries of individuals that were the responsibility of Chevron or Texaco.”

Connor also tried to exonerate Chevron by testifying that any contamination must have been caused by leaks from three storage tanks owned by a smaller company in the area, not the larger tanks owned by Chevron. But when confronted on cross-examination by evidence that he had misidentified the site from a state database, Connor admitted that he had never taken any steps to definitively verify that the gas tanks actually existed on the smaller company’s property.

The clear bias in Connor’s testimony and errors in his analysis apparently shocked the Mississippi jury, which rejected his argument that Chevron had no responsibility for the cognitive deficiencies of the five plaintiffs. The jury awarded the plaintiffs $19 million in damages, said Ed Flechas, the lead lawyer on the case who made the court documents available. Chevron is appealing the decision.

Read more: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101012007332/en/Amazon-Defense-Coalition-Chevron%E2%80%99s-Lead-Ecuador-Expert

[thelordofhell]

1. $19 million equals what, 30 minutes of profits for Cheveron

Big oil doesn't give a shit about this settlement.

[Xipe Totec]

3. 17 minutes 23 seconds to be exact

Not counting, of course, that the settlement would be a charge against profits, so it's paid with pre-tax dollars.

(Based on 2009 profits of 23.93 Billion)

http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-01-31/business/17199177_1_chevron-s-profit-annual-profit-oil-prices

[JackRiddler]

4. Not if this goes down as the precedent.

There are a few million people who can now sue, and as of today probably a few thousand lawyers thinking about class actions.

[GreenTea]

2. Were suppose to believe an oil corporation didn't pollute - then leave....

It's much more profitable for American corporations, CEO & stockholders making tens of billions of dollars from less industrialized developed countries, to exploit the country's resources(oil) and leave behind huge polluted disaster zones....

These same corporations who simply leave after the profits have dried up...then lie about polluting the fuck out of the same area that they were drilling in and exploiting.

Instead of spending the tens of millions of dollars it takes to clean up their ugly, stinking, deadly toxic messes.....these corporations say fuck the lands, air & waters that these corporations have clearly & thoroughly polluted, and say fuck the people of the country they just exploited for huge profits.

The corporations made their profits so fuck them let them pay for the cleanup and live in the shit-holes that these same corporations have destructively & carelessly created.

Still continuing to lie about it and then take their chances in American courts while making sure it takes years if ever to come to trial, paying off who needs to be along the way to assure these corporations are not libel nor responsible for anything....except reaping in those huge extra profits!

This corporate bullshit polluting, then leaving, then lying about it happens everyday all over the world. And then they expect us to believe that their greedy corporations don't pollute - then leave - then lie about it?

[Judi Lynn]

5. There's more to this Conners and Exxon polution problem, since he's a big part

of a suit by Ecuador against Exxon, a raging battle in which Exxon's pulled every trick in the book to walk away from a debt it owes to the people of Ecuador. From the article:

~snip~
Connor’s testimony in the Mississippi case could play a significant role in the Ecuador matter, where the stakes for Chevron are considerably higher and where the company’s defense rests largely on Connor’s credibility. A new damages report prepared by a team of prominent American experts and submitted by the plaintiffs on Sept. 16 found Chevron’s clean-up costs could rise to $113 billion; a large portion of that amount is compensation for up to 10,000 cancer deaths predicted in the coming decades if there is no immediate clean-up.

Connor continues to play a critical role for Chevron in the Ecuador trial, helping to coordinate the submission of numerous expert reports assessing environmental impact at dozens of Chevron’s oil production facilities that are the subject of the litigation. All of the reports submitted by Connor in the Ecuador trial found the company was not responsible for any harm despite scientific evidence from the parties and multiple third-party sources that the company’s former sites remain extensively contaminated.

In his Ecuador reports, Connor has tried to blame any contamination in Chevron’s concession area on Petroecuador, Ecuador’s state-owned oil company that took over Chevron’s operations in 1992. This tactic is similar to Connor trying to blame the smaller company in the Mississippi case, said Pablo Fajardo, the lead lawyer for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs.

In one report submitted to the Ecuador court in September, Connor found that Chevron’s operations in Ecuador were “consistent with applicable regulations and prevailing practices” from 1972-1990, when it operated the oil fields; that Chevron’s remediation in the mid-1990s was “completed in accordance with applicable specifications” even though evidence from both Chevron and the plaintiffs indicates the remediated sites are still contaminated; and, that any remaining contamination from Chevron’s activities “pose no measurable risk to human health.”

More:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101012007332/en/Amazon-Defense-Coalition-Chevron%E2%80%99s-Lead-Ecuador-Expert

Just a look or two at the background of this nightmare will give you more to consider. It is VITAL Exxon has to face the music, finally, with no escape. They are seriously ethically challenged.

[naaman fletcher]

6. I'm surprised they found him at all.

I would have thought he was out in the desert with his mom waiting for skynet to go live.

[molly77]

7. John Grisham novel

[boppers]

9. "Come with me if you want your profits to live!"

He appears to be a better soldier than a lawyer.

[AshleaDale]

8. Read more

Visit my blog to read more about Chevron's toxic mess: http://livesforoil.blogspot.com/

[Judi Lynn]

13. Thanks for posting that link. Looking forward to reading it later today.

Welcome to D.U., AshleaDale. :hi:

This topic has had quite a few DU posters following it for quite a while.

I appreciate seeing your webpage.

[Arkana]

10. They didn't listen to John Connor?

Well, we're all fucked then--the world's gonna be taken over by robots.

[Evasporque]

15. Sky Net is almost self aware already....nt

[gardenista]

11. "Chevron is appealing the decision"

This is the part of this story, and all such stories, that is most disturbing.

[Judi Lynn]

12. Huge organizations like this have the ability to keep appealing until their victim is bankrupted.

Damned shame. So very wrong.

[daggahead]

14. Why no prison time? n/t