A Burmese group's lawsuit against a giant U.S. energy company advanced Wednesday, when a judge, Victoria Gerrard Chaney, in the U.S. state of California denied a motion to dismiss the case.
Fifteen unnamed Burmese have sued Unocal, saying soldiers forced people in their village to work on a pipeline that the company was financially involved in during the 1990s. The plaintiffs claim the troops enslaved villagers and committed murder and rape while the more than $1 billion pipeline was built, from Burma to Thailand.
Judge Chaney is a complex litigation judge in the state Superior Court in Los Angeles. Why that court has jurisdiction is beyond me. Details here from (of all things) Voice of America.