Global mining giant BHP suffered a humiliating defeat in its attempt to stop Pogust Goodhead’s lawsuit over Brazil’s worst ever environmental disaster, the Mariana dam disaster.
On 1 June 2023, the Supreme Court refused BHP’s permission to appeal, meaning the mining giant will have to face trial in October 2024. BHP was attempting to appeal the historic judgment that was handed down in July 2022, officially allowing the case, the largest group action in history, to be heard in the courts of England and Wales.
The June 2023 Supreme Court judgment states:
“The Court ordered that permission to appeal be REFUSED because the application does not raise an arguable point of law.”
Pogust Goodhead’s Global Managing Partner and CEO, Tom Goodhead, said:
“We are delighted that the Supreme Court has unanimously rejected BHP’s claim that this trial should not go ahead. It is yet another desperate and embarrassing attempt by BHP to try and shirk responsibility and deny the pain and devastation it has caused because it values profit over people’s lives.
“Rather than write yet another chapter in the handbook for corporate wrongdoing, it is time BHP do the right thing by the real victims here, our clients, who have been left to suffer with the catastrophic devastation to their families, homes, land, and way of life.”
