Oil Spillage: Two Nigerian communities secure major legal victory against Shell in UK

Two Nigerian communities in the oil-rich Niger Delta have secured a pivotal legal victory against Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), in the Court of App Court of Appeal, as reported by Leigh Day.

The communities, Bille and Ogale, both in Rivers State in the Niger Delta, South-south of Nigeria, commenced the legal action in 2015 at a High Court in the United Kingdom to hold Shell accountable for decades of environmental devastation caused by oil spills.

The appellate court’s ruling delivered on Friday overturned a controversial decision made by a UK High Court in March that would have created an insurmountable legal hurdle for the plaintiffs, according to Leigh Day, a law firm committed to claimant-only cases ensuring that individuals have the same access to justice as the UK Government and large corporations.

More than 13,000 residents of Bille and Ogale had accused Shell of widespread pollution, claiming that repeated oil spills from the company’s infrastructure contaminated their lands, waterways, and drinking water.

The spills, they alleged, have rendered the land infertile and wiped out fish populations, leaving them unable to farm or fish—their primary sources of income.

Legal barrier removed

The Court of Appeal dismissed the previous ruling treating the claimants’ case as a “global claim” because they have been unable to link particular areas of damage to individual oil spills. Global claim is a type of legal action only ever used in contractual disputes in the construction industry.

Under a global claim, the Bille and Ogale communities would have had to prove that Shell was responsible for 100 per cent of the pollution that has impacted their environment, according to Leigh Day.

This implied that if there were any other sources of pollution for which Shell was not responsible, each individual’s claim would fail.

The March 2024 High Court ruling required each of the 13,000 claimants to prove which specific oil spill or leak caused precisely what environmental damage at the start of the case, before any expert evidence or disclosure had been ordered.

Leigh Day, the law firm representing the communities called this an “impossibly high burden” for claimants to meet.

Had the ruling been affirmed it would be a major stumbling block for future environmental claims, due to repeated incidents of pollution in future, unless they could prove the same polluter was responsible for all the pollution that has impacted them.

In overturning this decision, the Court of Appeal cleared the way for the case to proceed to a full trial, which will likely involve the disclosure of crucial internal Shell documents.

Speaking, the Leigh Day international department partner, Dan Leader, said, “It has been ten years since these two Nigerian communities first brought their claims in the UK courts, and many of our clients have died while awaiting justice.

“Our clients have already had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court to get a ruling that the UK Parent company, Shell plc is potentially liable for the environmental devastation they have suffered. Shell has now tied the case up in knots all over again and it has barely moved forward since the communities’ Supreme Court victory in 2021.”

“We are delighted that the Court of Appeal has now cut through the issues to allow the claims to finally proceed to trial.

“Our clients were being asked to pinpoint exactly which oil spill or leak caused which incident of pollution on their land at the very outset of their claims. Yet, the sheer scale of the pollution allegedly caused by Shell’s subsidiary over many years makes this an impossible task.”

“This is a landmark judgement for environmental claims going forward. Now the “Global Claims” test has been dismissed, claimants will be able to bring complex environmental claims arising from multiple and repeated polluting events without being asked to prove the impossible.”

Background

The legal journey for the Bille and Ogale communities began nearly 10 years ago, but progress has been slow. Many residents have died during the prolonged litigation process. The communities’ initial victory came in 2021 when the UK Supreme Court ruled that Shell’s parent company could potentially be held liable for environmental damage caused by its Nigerian subsidiary. Despite that ruling, the case has remained bogged down in legal technicalities.

The Court of Appeal’s latest decision marks a critical step toward a full trial, offering hope that the plaintiffs will finally see the case progress. The trial will likely be a landmark in environmental law, with broader implications for how courts around the world handle cases of widespread, multi-source pollution.

The scale of the damage in the Niger Delta has been immense. The Bille and Ogale communities alleged that over 100 oil spills have devastated their farmlands and rivers, destroying ecosystems and contaminating drinking water. The environmental degradation has been so severe that entire areas of the Niger Delta have become uninhabitable.

READ ALSO:Shell acknowledges oil spill in Bayelsa community, gives reason

Shell has long faced criticism for its operations in the Niger Delta, where frequent oil spills have sparked protests, lawsuits, and international condemnation.

The company has maintained that it is not solely responsible for the pollution in the region, pointing to illegal oil tapping by local actors as a contributing factor. However, critics argue that Shell has failed to adequately maintain its infrastructure and respond to environmental disasters.