Dutch judges agree to hear Brazil city quake claim

Dutch judges have agreed to hear a multi-million-euro compensation claim by residents of a Brazilian city against petrochemical giant Braskem, accused of causing earthquakes that forced thousands to abandon their homes.

The ruling by the Rotterdam District Court late Wednesday has paved the way for thousands of plaintiffs to sue Braskem for “hundreds of millions of euros” in damages in the northeastern city of Maceio, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said on Thursday.

“The decision in essence was that all of the defences raised by the Braskem entities were rejected,” Marc Krestin of the Pogust Goodhead law firm said.

“This means that, at least on a prima facie basis, the Dutch judges will consider the claim by our clients,” he told AFP.

Eleven residents of Maceio, the capital of Brazil’s coastal Alagoas state, in November 2020 sued Braskem in the Netherlands as a result of the quakes which struck the city in 2018.

The tremors caused massive structural damage like fissures in walls and opened sinkholes, forcing tens of thousands of residents in the city’s Pinheiro district and four others to move.

Brazilian news reports say more than 50,000 people and 14,000 households were affected by the tremors, attributed to salt mining by Braskem which has been ongoing since the 1970s.

– ‘Ghost town’ –

“The area was virtually turned into a ghost town. Large parts of the city have been completely devastated,” Krestin said.

The residents in November 2020 lodged a case with the Dutch courts, saying the legal process had stalled in Brazil and a collective settlement scheme by Braskem fell far below expectations.

“The sorts of money they are offering victims… by far are insufficient to cover the damages that our clients and the victims in Maceio have suffered,” Krestin said.

The residents’ claim of liability rested on the fact that Braskem has three subsidiaries based at its European headquarters in Rotterdam.

Judges agreed they had jurisdiction to rule in a case involving the subsidiaries as well as parent company Braskem SA as their business was “inextricably linked”.

“Braskem SA could have reasonably foreseen that not only their (Dutch) entities but also the holding company could be brought before this court,” the judges said in their verdict of which AFP has a copy.

Braskem, in response to Thursday’s hearing, said the company has been running a “voluntary programme that follows due legal process” since 2019 to help victims of the tremors.

The programme covered 14,525 properties of which 98 percent of residents have already been relocated, the company said in a statement sent to AFP.

More than 15,000 compensation proposals have already been accepted.

Braskem has already paid out an equivalent of almost $500 million in financial aid, it said.

It pointed out that Thursday’s ruling was handed down “in the preliminary phase of the process and does not judge the merits of the case”.

The company “will adopt the appropriate legal measures” in the case, Braskem said.

jhe/imm