SAN FRANCISO (CN) – A federal judge tossed the bulk of Chevron’s malicious prosecution claims against a Massachusetts attorney who represented Ecuadorians in an environmental pollution lawsuit. The only claim to survive accuses the lawyer of pursuing the case despite knowing that one of his clients did not have breast cancer.
Chevron claimed that Bonifaz filed the lawsuit as part of an extortion scheme. After being dropped as the lawyer in a similar suit filed in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, he sued in the United States “as a threat to the money and political power” that the Lago Agrio plaintiffs would gain, Chevron claimed.
Wilken largely granted the motion, but allowed a single claim to proceed: that Bonifaz knew one of his clients, Luisa Maribel Jame Gonzales, did not have breast cancer, but pursued her claim, anyway.
Bonifaz acknowledged that Jame had told his co-counsel that she did not have cancer, but he insisted that he still had probable cause to pursue her claims.
“If Bonifaz knew that Ms. Jame did not actually have cancer, he would have lacked probable cause to continue Ms. Jame’s suit,” Wilken wrote.
“His substantial role in the litigation and the significance of Ms. Jame’s admission warrant affording Chevron the opportunity to conduct discovery on whether Bonifaz knew of Ms. Jame’s statement to [co-counsel].”
Chevron otherwise failed to prove that Bonifaz filed the lawsuit maliciously, the judge concluded.
Copyright 2010 Courthouse News Service