London court reopens US$7 billion lawsuit over Brazil’s Mariana dam disaster

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The London Court of Appeal on Tuesday (27) agreed to reopen a US$7 billion lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining company BHP over a dam that burst in Mariana (MG) in 2015, which caused the biggest environmental disaster in Brazil’s history.

A group made up of some 200,000 Brazilian claimants had been trying to resurrect the £5 billion (US$6.9 billion) lawsuit filed in England against BHP since a lower court stayed the action in November, alleging procedural defects, and a Court of Appeals judge upheld the decision.

“While we fully understand the considerations which led the judge to his conclusion that the claim should be dismissed, we believe that the appeal has a real prospect of success,” three Court of Appeal magistrates said in the decision issued on Tuesday.

The collapse of the Fundão dam, owned by Samarco — a joint venture between BHP and Brazil’s Vale — killed 19 people and caused a torrent of more than 40 million cubic meters of tailings to flood the Doce River and reach the Atlantic Ocean, more than 650 kilometers from the disaster site.

Hundreds of thousands of people suffered losses.

The class-action lawsuit — one of the largest in the history of the English legal system — has been brought by the law firm PGMBM on behalf of individuals, companies, churches, organizations, municipalities, and indigenous peoples in Brazil.

Tom Goodhead, the managing partner of PGMBM, said this was a “monumental decision” and that his clients felt that for the first time the judges recognized the importance of the case.

BHP, the world’s largest mining company by market value, called the case meaningless and a waste of time, claiming that the action duplicates Brazil’s procedures and the work of the Renova Foundation, an entity created by the company and its Brazilian partners for compensation for the disaster.

“BHP’s position remains that the proceedings do not belong in the UK,” the company said in a statement. “The issues raised by the claimants are already covered by the work of Fundação Renova, by existing decisions of the Brazilian courts or are the subject of proceedings underway in Brazil.”

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