Chevron can sue Patton Boggs over law firm effort to collect $9.5B verdict, judge rules

In the latest salvo in a hard-fought international environmental case, a federal judge in New York has OK’d a request by Chevron Corp. to sue a law firm representing the oil company’s opponent in its efforts to collect a $9.5 billion judgment awarded by a court in Ecuador.

Although Patton Boggs is not the lead counsel representing the plaintiffs in the environmental case and hence was not directly impacted by a U.S. district court ruling earlier this month that the $9.5 verdict had been obtained by fraud, the Washington, D.C., firm did attempt to help the Ecuadorian plaintiffs collect their verdict in the underlying case. That resulted in another ruling Monday by Judge Lewis Kaplan in the Manhattan case.

He said Chevron could countersue Patton Boggs in the collection litigation, according to Bloomberg and Reuters.