The North Dakota Supreme Court has stepped in to restrict Greenpeace International’s ability to countersue the company behind a hotly contested oil pipeline.
In a decision issued Thursday, a majority of the members of North Dakota’s highest court directed a lower bench to immediately block Greenpeace from pursuing claims in Dutch court that Dakota Access pipeline developer Energy Transfer’s defamation suit against the environmental group “lacked legal foundation.” Energy Transfer’s lawsuit resulted in a North Dakota jury verdict requiring Greenpeace to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
Greenpeace’s “claims are a collateral attack on the jury’s verdict and seek a remedy that would erase any final award of damages. The district court has the duty and the authority to protect the integrity of its own proceedings,” said North Dakota Supreme Court Justice Jerod Tufte, writing for the majority.
The decision is the latest development in a yearslong legal battle stemming from protests in 2016 and 2017 against the Dakota Access pipeline. It reverses a ruling from a district court judge who declined to issue an injunction barring Greenpeace’s Dutch suit.
