巴西19个市政府加入本地赔偿方案，削弱BHP与Vale英国Mariana溃坝诉讼索赔池

Brazilian municipalities join BHP and Vale dam collapse payout scheme
The claimant’s side of one of the biggest class action lawsuits in English legal history has been dealt a setback after a group of Brazilian public authorities opted for a local compensation scheme for a mining disaster.
The High Court in London last year found legal liability on the part of BHP for the 2015 dam collapse near the town of Mariana, which killed 19 people in one of the South American country’s worst environmental accidents.
A second trial is due to determine damages for the roughly 380,000 claimants, whose lawyers had originally sought up to £36bn in compensation.
However, on Thursday a federal court in Brazil announced that 19 municipalities had signed up for an existing indemnification scheme.
A condition of joining the reparations programme — which the vast majority of eligible municipalities have now accepted — is withdrawing from the English litigation, said a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
They included leading claimant Mariana itself, representing the area at the epicentre of the catastrophe in Minas Gerais state.
The disaster occurred when a structure holding mining waste burst at the Samarco iron ore complex, jointly owned by BHP and Vale, unleashing sludge that swamped villages and contaminated hundreds of miles of waterways.
The town halls had been expected to seek the largest amounts in the London class action, according to people familiar with the details.
Set up in 2024, the Brazilian indemnity scheme provides for R$170bn (about $33bn) in reparations over 20 years, including R$6.1bn earmarked for municipalities.
The development is a blow for litigation boutique Pogust Goodhead, which brought the London claim on the basis that BHP had a UK parent company at the time of the event.
Pogust said that Thursday’s decision had “no bearing on the proceedings in England”, adding that it currently represents 31 municipalities in the case. It has been battling the exits of key staff following the ousting last year of its founding partner, Tom Goodhead.
“The adherence of these municipalities is an important step towards ensuring that communities have full access to all the resources allocated to them under the Brazil agreement,” said BHP. It has agreed to split any eventual sums due from the London case with Vale.
Heavyweight firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan stepped in to lead the legal action in June, the FT previously reported. It declined to comment. New York-based hedge fund Gramercy, which has invested more than $800mn in Pogust Goodhead and its cases, did not respond.
Separately, Pogust Goodhead is being sued by Vinci SPS Capital, another group involved in the financing of the Brazil case.
The complex High Court dispute relates to £43mn in interim legal costs awarded to the claimants after a judge in London ruled against BHP in November, according to a legal filing.
Vinci SPS argued in the filing last month that it was entitled to the payout as collateral. It alleged Pogust Goodhead has refused to hand over the money, pointing to rules on how law firms must handle client money as well as a separate agreement with its legal insurers.
Pogust said the funds were held in a client account for legal insurers and “are therefore not available for distribution to either the Brazilian lender or any other party, including Pogust Goodhead”.