NEW YORK (AP) — Chevron will have to wait until next month to find out if it can review raw footage from a documentary about a lengthy legal battle over whether the oil company owes billions of dollars in damages to Ecuadoreans, a New York judge said Tuesday.
A recent lower court ruling ordered the filmmaker to release the outtakes, but the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a temporary stay, leaving the company without access to the footage.
On Tuesday, appellate Judge Peter Hall denied Chevron's request to lift the stay, saying the appeals court would try to expedite an appeal of the ruling by scheduling arguments in early July.
"We'll dispose of this case as quickly as we can," Hall told lawyers from both sides at a brief hearing.
The dispute is a continuation of a 17-year-old legal battle. In a lawsuit, the Ecuadoreans claim their land was contaminated during three decades of oil exploration and extraction by Texaco Inc., which became a wholly owned subsidiary of San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron Corp. in 2001.