Why are victims of a Brazil dam disaster suing miner BHP in a London court?

Global mining elephantine BHP faces billions of dollars successful imaginable damages payouts implicit Brazil’s worst biology catastrophe 9 years ago, arsenic the archetypal proceeding successful the much-delayed suit opened successful a London tribunal connected Monday.

On November 5, 2015, a tailings dam collapsed releasing robust ore sludge into the Rio Doce (Sweet River) successful southeastern Brazil. The toxic discarded contaminated the stream h2o and damaged its ecosystem. The mining waste washed distant the adjacent Bento Rodrigues village, sidesplitting astatine slightest 19 people.

The people enactment suit archetypal filed successful November 2018 seeks astir $47bn successful damages, making it the largest biology payout ever, according to instrumentality steadfast Pogust Goodhead, which is representing the plaintiffs.

Here is what we cognize astir the incidental and the lawsuit.

What happened to the Mariana dam?

The Mariana dam, besides known arsenic the Fundao dam, which stored astir 50 cardinal cubic metres of robust ore sludge, collapsed connected November 5, 2015, washing distant the Bento Rodrigues village, which present resembles a shade town.

The dam was operated by Brazilian mining steadfast Samarco, successful which BHP is simply a shareholder.

The toxic sludge devastated and contaminated fisheries and forests. Hundreds of Indigenous radical surviving adjacent the Doce River were near without cleanable drinking water. The toxic discarded travelled arsenic acold arsenic the Atlantic Ocean.

The Doce River, which is ineffable to the Indigenous Krenak community, has inactive not afloat recovered from the damage.

According to a survey by the University of Ulster, the toxic discarded damaged 660km (410 miles) of the river, and killed 14 tonnes of freshwater fish. Moreover, fishermen mislaid years of their catch.

Residents of Bento Rodrigues village, which was covered with mud aft a dam owned by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Ltd burst, look astatine the remains of a location successful Mariana successful Minas Gerais authorities connected October 17, 2024 [Washington Alves/Reuters]

What is the suit against BHP?

The suit filed by much than 600,000 people, according to official tribunal documents, demands that Anglo-Australian mining institution BHP wage capable damages to the victims affected by the disaster.

In 2018, it was reported that interior documents from Samarco, dated six months earlier the dam collapse, showed that the institution knew astir the risks associated with a imaginable dam illness successful the Minas Gerais state.

BHP owns 50 percent of Samarco, which operated the robust ore excavation wherever the dam ruptured. Brazilian robust shaper Vale is besides a shareholder successful Samarco.

“BHP is simply a polluter and indispensable truthful pay,” lawyer Alain Choo Choy said successful written submissions.

A class-action suit refers to a suit brought by an idiosyncratic oregon a radical connected behalf of a larger group. In the lawsuit of the dam collapse, determination were aggregate victims and the radical bringing the suit correspond these victims.

Class-action lawsuits are comparatively communal successful cases of biology damage. A caller illustration of this was successful precocious June this twelvemonth erstwhile a radical of children successful Hawaii won a case against the Hawaii Department of Transportation, wherever they had alleged that the assemblage violated their law close to a cleanable situation by implementing policies that make emissions. The children were speaking connected behalf of the wide younker successful Hawaii. The section agreed to enforce decarbonisation policies successful Hawaii’s transport sector.

Why was the lawsuit filed successful a London court?

BHP and Vale person negotiated a colony with authorities successful Brazil on with Samarco, according to media reports.

As a effect of these negotiations, successful 2016, BHP alongside Vale and Samarco established the Renova Foundation for the reparation of damages caused by the dam collapse.

According to a quality merchandise published by BHP connected October 19, $7.9bn has already been paid betwixt 2016 and September 2024, astir $18bn is to beryllium paid successful instalments implicit 20 years and astir $5.8bn volition beryllium paid successful “additional show obligations” by Samarco.

The Guardian reported successful 2018 that a civilian lawsuit was filed by those affected successful a Brazilian court. However, since Brazil courts instrumentality a agelong clip to scope a determination and determination was a accidental that compensation would beryllium inadequate, the victims alternatively went to a London court.

Besides this, the suit was filed successful the UK due to the fact that 2 of BHP’s ineligible entities were based successful the UK astatine the time.

In written submissions, BHP lawyer Shaheed Fatima said that the plaintiff’s assertion has “no basis”, saying BHP did not ain oregon run the dam and “had constricted cognition of the dam and nary cognition that its stableness was compromised”.

A little timeline of the ineligible case

Here is simply a little timeline of however this suit has progressed, and wherefore the hearings are happening 9 years later:

• November 5, 2018: More than 240,000 radical and firm entities, including 200 radical from the Krenak communities, filed a suit against BHP, Vale and Samarco astatine the High Court of Justice successful London.
• April 2020: A UK justice postponed tribunal proceedings due to the fact that of COVID-19 restrictions, according to the London-headquartered probe organisation Business and Human Rights Resource Centre.
• November 2020: The High Court dismissed the case, with the justice ruling that the lawsuit was an “abuse of the process of the court”.
• March 2021: The plaintiffs did not person luck astatine the Court of Appeals, whose judgement agreed that the lawsuit would beryllium an maltreatment of tribunal processes.
• July 2021: The appeals tribunal reversed their earlier decision, and agreed to assistance support to entreaty to debar “real injustice”.
• July 2022: The appeals tribunal ruled that English courts had jurisdiction to perceive the case, particularly since the compensation provided to the victims successful Brazil was inadequate. The proceedings was acceptable to statesman successful April 2024, but BHP requested for it to beryllium postponed until mid-2025.
• March 2023: Another 500,000 radical and organisations joined the plaintiffs.
• May 2023: A London tribunal rejected BHP’s petition for postponement, alternatively granting a five-month deferral until October 2024. The proceeding successful the much-delayed lawsuit started connected October 21.

Wakrewa Krenak, from Brazil, stands extracurricular the Royal Courts of Justice successful London connected October 21, 2024 [Alberto Pezzali/AP]