The New York Law Journal by Mark Hamblett - December 16, 2010
A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a judge's decision to order attorney Steven Donziger to submit to a deposition and produce documents in connection with his alleged manipulation of the judicial system in Ecuador during environmental litigation against Chevron. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found no error by Southern District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in orders he issued on Oct. 20 and Nov. 30 and later updated. Chevron alleges misconduct by Mr. Donziger in its effort to defeat a lawsuit brought by Ecuadorian plaintiffs seeking billions of dollars for the environmental contamination by Chevron's predecessor in Ecuador, Texaco, and prevail in an international arbitration case. The company claims, and Mr. Donziger denies, that he improperly influenced Ecuadorian officials and experts, and prodded authorities to seek criminal charges against two of the oil company's attorneys. Earlier this year, Judge Kaplan ordered the production of outtakes from "Crude," a documentary about the litigation by filmmaker Joseph Berlinger, and Chevron has used those outtakes to press its case that Mr. Donziger should hand over documents and be deposed. James E. Tyrrell, Jr. of Patton Boggs argued for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs seeking to block the document production and deposition. Bruce S. Kaplan of Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman argued for Mr. Donziger. Randy Mastro of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher appeared for Chevron. Andres Rivero of Rivero Mestre appeared for one of the Ecuadorian attorneys, Rodrigo Perez Pallares, and Alan Vinegrad of Covington & Burling represented the other attorney, Ricardo Reis Veiga. The circuit panel that issued the summary order in In re Chevron Corp., 10-4341-cv; 10-4405-cv, included Second Circuit Judges Jose Cabranes and Denny Chin, and, sitting by designation, Eastern District Judge Edward Korman.
The sad truth is that the United States judiciary is much more corrupt than the in-you-face corrupt courts in most foreign countries. At least those corrupt judicial systems admit they are corrupt: pay to play or you get smashed like an ant.
ReplyDeleteWhy the US government is trying to silence Wikileaks, while the rest of the world laughs at the hypocrisy.
ReplyDeleteDid the 2nd Circuit make a mistake here and fail to advance a cover-up or corruption by member 2nd circuit attorneys?
ReplyDeleteDidn't this Judge get the Memo that states that CORRUPTION IS A OK? Somebody wake this dude up NOW.
ReplyDeleteThe blackened and sticking NY pot of boiling bile is complaining of a slightly tarnished kettle with clean water. A Devil's Legionnaire bemoaning that evil exists.
ReplyDelete