"Nicaraguan Farmers Seek Compensation from Chemical Corporations", 24 Jan 2022

On behalf of the families of 1,234 Nicaraguan farmers... a legal process [has began before a] Paris Court to claim compensation of US$1 billion from Shell Oil, Dow Chemical, and Occidental Chemical...

The lawsuit [has been filed in the] French Justice [system] because the United States courts refused to execute the sentences issued in 2002 and 2007 by Nicaraguan courts, which forced these three companies to compensate workers who had been affected by a pesticide labelled Nemagon.

The Nicaraguan rulings showed that Shell Oil, Dow Chemical, and Occidental Chemical sold this product in the Central American country despite the fact that it had been prohibited in the U.S. since 1977 due to its harmful effects. Among the health effects suffered by banana workers are neurological problems, blindness, infertility, and prostate and liver cancers.

Years later, however, U.S. courts dismissed the Nicaraguan rulings, arguing that the local judges were suspected of corruption...

The plaintiffs' lawyers chose France because... a decision related to the Exequatur [procedure used to recognize foreign rulings]... implies its immediate execution in all the European Union since 2012. In addition, the Nicaraguan legal system is based on the Napoleonic Code, which is the civil liability mechanism applied in France.