Responsible for the lawsuit brought against BHP Billiton in British court – representing the 200,000 plaintiffs directly affected by the rupture of the Samarco Dam, in the municipality of Minas Gerais in the Mariana, 5 November 2015 – the law firm PGMBM changed its name, now go to Pogust Goodhead, the titles of the two principal partners : Harris Pogust and Tom Goodhead.
Headquarters remains in London, but operations will be expanded in Brazil. An office will be opened in Rio de Janeiro and an advanced base will be established in Governador Valadares (MG), a municipality through which Rio Doce passes and which has also suffered a lot of mud from Samarco tailings that descended from the Mariana to the mouth of Doce, in the Regency. More than 300 people will be hired, including 20 new lawyers.
“Our Brazilian cases have always been the driving force behind this work, and with a new office in Rio, we hope to build on the significant progress we’ve made in cases against defendants like BHP,” Goodhead says.
At the beginning of July, the Court of Appeal in England, by unanimous decision, moved the case against BHP to the British Court of Justice. BHP’s thesis, that there would be duplication of reparation initiatives since there were operations going on in Brazil, ended up failing. The shareholders of Samarco are Vale (50%) and Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton (50%).
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