Details are spotty, but I can report that Justice Luis Felipe Salomão of Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice, has issued an oral opinion refusing to recognize the Lago Agrio plaintiffs’ Ecuadoran judgment. The only information I have about the opinion so far comes from Chevron. Apparently Judge Salomão noted a lack of jurisdiction and also that enforcement would be contrary to the public order because the judgment was based on fraud. This outcome is probably not surprising, given that the LAPs signaled last month that they were abandoning their efforts to enforce the judgment in Brazil.

Justice Salomão was acting as the reporting judge. In a homologation case, after the Federal Public Attorney renders an opinion, a reporting judge is appointed to “process the controversy,” but the case is tried to the whole bench. See Godofredo Mendes Viana & Lucas Leite Marques, Brazil, in Enforcement of Judgments, Awards, and Decrees in Commercial Matters 47-48 (2013). I understand that Justice Salomão’s opinion is not the last word, and that the rest of the judges will render the final decision after considering the opinion. I will keep you posted as new information becomes available.