Oil spills: British supreme court rules Niger Delta communities can sue Shell in UK

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that Ogale and Bille communities in Rivers state can sue Royal Dutch Shell, a British-Dutch oil company, in English courts for pollution.

The communities, with 42,500 farmers and fishermen, claim they have suffered because repeated oil spills have polluted their environment including land, swamps, groundwater and waterways.

Represented by Leigh Day, a law firm, the communities argued that Shell owed them a duty of care because it either had significant control of or was responsible for the pollution carried out by its Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC).

Although Shell did not dispute that the communities had suffered pollution, it argued that the case was outside the UK’s jurisdiction.

However, the court ruled that Shell has a common law duty of care and can be held accountable for the acts of its subsidiaries in other countries.

The communities are pursuing legal claims against Shell in the UK after claiming that “there is no hope of justice in the Nigerian courts.”

Daniel Leader, a partner at Leigh Day, said: “This supreme court judgment gives real hope to the people of Ogale and Bille, who have been asking Shell to clean up their oil for years. We hope that now, finally, Shell will act”.

“But it (the ruling) also represents a watershed moment in the accountability of multinational companies. Increasingly impoverished communities are seeking to hold powerful corporate actors to account and this judgment will significantly increase their ability to do so.” 

The firm said the amount of compensation sought would be quantified as the case enters the trial stage.

Shell has argued that the pollution in oil communities is caused by saboteurs.

A Dutch court recently ruled that Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary pay damages to four Niger Delta communities for oil spills that they say caused widespread pollution of the land.

Photo credit: Leigh Day