Mariana Dam disaster: Next stage of case to be heard next April
An extraordinary row broke out yesterday over whether Pogust Goodhead (PG) has been replaced as the solicitors bringing the Mariana Dam case, the largest group action in English legal history.
Bailey Glasser International (BGI) – a new joint venture [1] between an English law firm run by former Pogust Goodhead (PG) staff and US firm Bailey & Glasser – announced that the client committee last week decided to change solicitors.
However, PG countered that the client committee has “no authority to terminate Pogust Goodhead’s representation on behalf of the wider group of claimants in the proceedings” and that it continued to act.
The committee is not a body appointed by the court. It is understood to be a representative body appointed by PG’s previous management under the contractual arrangements governing the relationship between PG and its clients.
There have been discussions in recent weeks over the committee’s concerns about the management and resourcing of the litigation and last week it moved to replace PG.
BGI insisted that the committee has the authority to terminate retainers and authorise the collective transfer of the litigation to a new firm. PG disputes that the committee has the contractual right to do this.
It is not clear how this will be resolved.
It was only in June that PG unveiled [2] a “strategic partnership” with heavyweight litigation firm Quinn Emanuel to work on the next stage of the case, along with a new funding facility of up to $150m from its existing backer, Gramercy Funds Management, solely to support this litigation.
The two deals come in the wake of the High Court’s landmark liability ruling in favour of the hundreds of thousands of claimants last November. In May, the Court of Appeal refused defendant BHP’s application for permission to appeal.
Stage 2 of the proceedings will determine issues of causation, loss and damages. The trial evidence is to be heard from April 2027 to December 2027, with closing submissions listed for March 2028.
Depending on what happens, a stage 3 trial may also be required, where each claimant would need to prove their individual damages.
BGI is a trading name of Edward McCourt & Co, a City law firm that has a “commercial cooperation agreement” with Bailey & Glasser, a litigation and corporate firm with more than 130 lawyers in 19 offices across the US. An office in the Netherlands is to follow “soon”.
Since February, Edward McCourt & Co has been owned by Jeremy Evans, who up to that point had been a senior partner at PG. Tom Goodhead, the PG founder ousted from the firm last year, was briefly a director of Edward McCourt last November.
Joining him are former PG partner Faranak Ghajavand and former PG solicitor Callum Walters. All three were part of the PG team that worked on the case.
The BGI announcement said class action firm Hausfeld & Co would provide support in London, while senior members of the counsel team “will return” to work on the case.
“BGI’s priority is continuity for the claimants, and it does not expect the change of legal representation to have any significant effect on the overall litigation timetable. BGI acknowledges the work done by Pogust Goodhead in bringing the case to the High Court in London and securing the landmark ruling on liability.”
However, a PG spokeswoman told Legal Futures: “The client committee has no authority to terminate Pogust Goodhead’s representation on behalf of the wider group of claimants in the proceedings.
“Pogust Goodhead continues to represent hundreds of thousands of Brazilians affected by the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history, and the litigation continues as normal…
“We remain committed to addressing legitimate questions, protecting our clients’ interests, avoiding unnecessary disruption and maintaining the current timetable for the trial.”
She added that the after-the-event insurance taken out by the claimants was secured through PG and on the basis that it acted.
By attempting to terminate PG, “the committee risks placing claimants’ costs protection in jeopardy and exposing them to significant financial liabilities. This is of utmost concern to us, particularly given the misinformation being circulated about the implications of the committee’s actions.
“Pogust Goodhead remains the solicitor of record and continues to act in claimants’ best interests, with the overriding objective of protecting both the litigation and the safeguards established for claimants.”