Chevron to fight on despite SCOTUS loss

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SAN RAMON, Calif., Oct. 10 (UPI) -- U.S. supermajor Chevron said it would work to block "fraudulent" legal challenges by Ecuadorean plaintiffs despite a loss at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Chevron Corp. acquired Texaco Inc. in 2001. A group of Ecuadorean plaintiffs, in a legal fight spanning close to 20 years, blames Texaco for environmental pollution in the rain forest.

The Supreme Court turned down an effort by Chevron to block the $19 billion judgment filed against the oil company.

"While Chevron is disappointed that the court denied our petition, we will continue to defend against the plaintiffs' lawyers' attempts to enforce the fraudulent Ecuadorean judgment and to further expose their misconduct," the company said in a statement to Bloomberg News.

Legal counsel for the Ecuadorian plaintiffs, meanwhile, said Chevron is playing a legal shell game in an effort to dodge its environmental responsibilities.

"Chevron's latest loss before the Supreme Court is an example of the company's increasingly futile battle to avoid paying its legal obligations in Ecuador," lawyer Aaron Marr Page told Bloomberg.

Chevron claimed any case against it ignores the release of liability granted to Texaco by the Ecuadorian government in the 1990s.