Chevron had accused Multnomah County’s lead attorney of fraud for hiding his role in climate research papers. The judge rejected that argument but lashed out at the lawyer for not disclosing his connections.
BY: LESLEY CLARK
CLIMATEWIRE | A judge rejected Chevron’s efforts to remove scientific studies from an Oregon County’s $51 billion lawsuit over climate change, but not without chastising one of the county’s lawyers for behavior “so completely out of bounds it almost defies belief.”
The oil and gas giant last month accused Multnomah County’s lead counsel of failing to tell the court about his involvement with two papers in the scientific journal Nature that were referenced in court documents.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Benjamin Souede, who heard testimony Thursday, said there was not sufficient evidence to find a “fraud on the court” had been committed — as Chevron alleged.
But Souede added in his ruling from the bench that there was an “almost gobsmacking failure by the plaintiff to do anything close to what we expect counsel and a party to do in litigation. Especially in litigation that is well funded, that is hard fought, that is complicated, that is about important issues.”
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