Occidental Petroleum I
Case Name: LOUIS ALBERTO GALVIS MUJICA on behalf of himself and as representative of the estates of TEREZA MUJICA HERNANDEZ and JOHANNY HERNANDEZ BECERRA v. OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM, and CORPORATION, AIRSCAN, INC
Plaintiff: The son and brother of the deceased.
Summary: In April 2003, ILRF and the Center for Human Rights at Northwestern University School of Law filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, against Occidental Petroleum and its security contractor, Airscan, Inc., for their role in the murder of innocent civilians in the hamlet of Santo Domingo, Colombia in 1998. In 2005, ILRF appealed the court’s dismissal of the case based on the US State Department’s unsupported opinion that human rights litigation could “embarrass” the US government in its dealings with Colombia. An intervening decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, Sarei v. Rio Tinto, ruled for the plaintiffs on nearly identical issues, virtually assuring an appellate victory in this case.
Status: The argument was held April 19, 2007 with a decision pending.
Cooperating Attorneys:
Paul Hoffman,
Schonbrun, De Simons, Seplow, Harris & Hoffman LLP
Daniel M. Kovalik,
Attorney at Law
Douglass W. Cassel and Bridget Arimond
Center for International Human Rights
Northwestern University Law School
— Chris Saeger, "Strengthening Rule of Law Through Aid for Human Rights Litigation in National Courts: A Case Study of Oil Multinational Corporations Complicit in Human Rights Violations in Sudan and Nigeria (December 2007)
— Terry Collingsworth, "Using the Alien Tort Claims Act to Introduce the Rule of Law to the Global Economy (2005)
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