Belo Horizonte, MG (Fulhabres) – The UK Court of Appeal ruled on Friday (8) that Anglo-Australian company BHP Billiton can be prosecuted in the country over the failure of the Fundão dam, in Mariana Municipality (MG), in 2015. The structure belongs to the company Samarco Mining, a joint venture set up by BHP and Vale. Nineteen people died in the tragedy.
The wave of iron ore tailings that descended from the dam devastated the Pinto Rodrigues region, reached the Doce River, and traveled all the way up to its mouth, in Espírito Santo, in one of the country’s biggest environmental disasters.
A lawsuit has been filed by those affected by the tragedy in English courts since 2018. This Friday’s decision was necessary to continue the proceedings. The measure requires 5 billion pounds (31.9 billion Brazilian reals).
However, the value will undergo a new calculation, according to attorney Pedro Martins, partner at the PGMBM office, which represents victims of the disaster. A total of 200,000 affected people, including individuals, Indigenous communities, municipalities and businesses, are participating in the activity.
BHP can still appeal to the High Court of England. In the lawyer’s opinion, there is a narrow margin for this to happen. He estimates that “the decision of the Court of Appeal was very strong”.
In the suit to the English court, former Attorney General of the Republic Rodrigo Janot served as an expert appointed by the PGMBM office. It was up to the former PGR to report on how Brazilian environmental legislation and the country’s legal system were working.
For Janot, the position of the English court will have consequences. “This decision will change the framework of international law as it relates to class actions,” says the former prosecutor. “The globalization of jurisdiction is happening. It would have been unimaginable ten years ago.”
The lawsuit was brought against BHP on the grounds that, according to Brazilian law, compensation must be full – which did not happen in Brazil at the discretion of the office representing the affected.
In November 2020, a civil court in Manchester, where the case is still pending, decided not to proceed with the lawsuit. The rationale was that there was a risk of simultaneous experiments in both countries. However, the English court reopened the case on July 27 last year.
In a memo issued on Friday, BHP said the decision referred to the initial issues of the case, and did not yet deal with the merits of lawsuits in English courts.
The company says it will review the decision to determine what next steps need to be taken within the process. He said: “BHP will continue to advocate for the measure in the UK, which we believe is unnecessary as it duplicates issues already covered by Renova’s ongoing work under the supervision of the Brazilian judiciary and ongoing legal proceedings in Brazil.”
The Renova Corporation is the entity set up by mining companies to be responsible for repairing damages caused by a dam failure. BHP adds that it is committed to compensation measures that include those affected by the dam failure.
“To date, R$21.8 billion has been disbursed in the reform and compensation programs implemented by Renova,” the company says in the note.
Monica dos Santos, 37, a resident of Bento Rodriguez and a member of the Committee for Affected Persons. According to her, the expectation is that the process will be faster and justice will be served.
“We know it’s just the beginning, and there’s still a lot to do through to the end of the process. But just knowing that she’s been accepted is a relief, and it’s a lot of fun, because it’s going to be a seven-year life hiatus,” she says.
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