Lawyers for over 40,000 Nigerians will appeal a High Court judgment handed down today which ruled that two polluted communities in the Niger Delta cannot seek redress against the oil giant Shell in the English courts. The Judge concluded that Royal Dutch Shell plc (the parent company) has no legal responsibility for the systematic pollution of the Nigerian communities by its Nigerian subsidiary...However, according to the lawyers for the communities, Mr Justice Fraser has made this judgment at this early stage in the litigation, before any documents were disclosed and without hearing oral evidence...The communities intend to appeal against this finding and they are confident that this decision will be overturned by the Court of Appeal...Both communities allege that they have suffered systematic and ongoing oil pollution for years because of Shell’s operations. Shell does not dispute that both communities have been severely polluted by its oil, or that it has yet to clean up the oil...Chief Temebo, spokesman of the Bille Council of Chiefs said...“If the claim does not continue in the English courts, we have no hope that the environment will ever be cleaned up and the fish will ever return to our waters...”...