Damages in Chevron Ecuador suit jump billions

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Gonzalo Solano, Associated Press

Saturday, September 18, 2010

(09-18) 04:00 PDT Quito, Ecuador --

The plaintiffs suing San Ramon-based Chevron Corp. over oil contamination in a large swath of Ecuador's jungle have raised their estimate of damages to a range of $40 billion to $90 billion.

The plaintiffs' previous damages claim of $27 billion had been endorsed by the court-appointed expert in the bitter, long-running case.

A Chevron spokesman rejected the new estimate Friday as a wildly distorted attempt to discredit the oil company.

The plaintiffs said they filed the assessment with the trial judge late Thursday to comply with his Aug. 2 request to justify their positions on economic damages. They said it is based on analyses by prominent U.S. medical, environmental and economics consultants.



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