16 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
JULY 2019
EVEN WITH A BEDROCK
LEGAL PRINCIPLE AT
STAKE, ECUADOREAN
VILLAGER'S BATTLE
WITH CHEVRON
AD THE EQUITIES
AT ITS HEART
BY JULIUS MELNITZER
THE ART
OF THE CASE:
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
I
looked at the stuff and said yes."
at is Alan Lenczner's succinct sum-
mary of the advice he gave to a group
of Ecuadorean plaintiffs who consulted
his firm, Lenczner Slaght Royce Griffin
Smith LLP, about whether there was any
chance of enforcing their US$9.5 billion
(Ecuadorean) judgment against Chevron
Corporation by seizing the shares and as-
sets of its seventh-level subsidiary, Chevron
Canada Limited.
Never mind that success in Yaiguaje v.
Chevron Corporation depended on piercing
the iconic "corporate veil" and undermin-
ing the principle of corporate separateness,
a mainstay of the common law since 1896;
never mind that there was no suggestion
that the corporate structure to which the
Canadian company belonged was an in-
strument of fraud or wrongdoing — one
of the few circumstances in which courts
have been willing to ignore the corporate
veil; never mind that Chevron Canada had
done absolutely nothing wrong and was
"
A TALE OF TWO
EQUITIES