OK to import and dump toxic and hazardous wastes in the DR

[aegap]

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - The Dominican Republic has settled a lawsuit against a U.S. energy firm that it accused of dumping industrial waste on its beaches, a lawyer for the country said Wednesday.

The settlement with Virginia-based AES Corp. was reached Tuesday, less than a week before the case was scheduled for trial in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, said attorney Susan Burke.

Terms of the settlement were not immediately disclosed. The Dominican had sought US$80 million (euro60.5 million) in damages from the power company.

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[Texas Bill]

I would guess that they were willing to settle for somewhere between 30-50 million.
The DR is severly strapped for cash and it wasn't a certainty that they would win at the 80 million mark. Judges usually award much less that is asked for. In this case, the damages were minimal and the alluded to illnesses were NOT atributable to the "rock-ash".
This whole thing was blown all out of proportion from the begining by a greedy group in government.

Texas Bill

[aegap]

Originally Posted by Texas Bill

In this case, the damages were minimal and the alluded to illnesses were NOT atributable to the "rock-ash".
..

Texas Bill

..yes, but punitive damage awards given by American juries can be a bitch.

[aegap]

AES and DR government settle
The Ministry of Environment has settled a suit with AES that was being heard in the US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia. The DR government had accused the US company of dumping 80,000 tons of coal ash waste from an AES power plant in Puerto Rico in coastal areas in Montecristi and Samana provinces. The Ministry of Environment had indicated that it would settle for US$80 million in damages from the power company. The case would have gone to court on 5 March. US lawyer Susan Burke of Burke Pyle LLC says that the DR would release the terms of the settlement pursuant to the government-in-the-sunshine rules. Those rules were conceived and passed in the wake of the Watergate scandal in the mid 1970s, when US public mistrust of government was running very high.
For background on the case, see www.dr1.com/news/2007/020607_AESsuit.pdf and www.dr1.com/news/2006/032706_AESsuit.pdf


The Alien Tort Statute, 28 U.S.C. § 1350, (ATS) is a federal law that states, in relevant part:

"The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States."

Recently, this statute has become significant as a means of allowing American government, military, and corporate leaders to be held responsible in a court of law for the human rights abuses committed as a result of their presence in a foreign country. This is regardless of whether the abuses were committed by someone within an American organization, or whether the abuses were committed by a local group empowered by the presence of the American organization.