The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to Chevron…by preventing Ecuadorean villagers and their American lawyer from trying to collect on an $8.65 billion pollution judgment issued against the oil company by a court in Ecuador.

The justices turned away [a petition] by New York-based lawyer Steven Donziger, who has spent more than two decades trying to hold Chevron responsible for pollution in the Ecuadorean rain forest, of lower court rulings blocking enforcement in the United States of the 2011 judgment.

While not disputing that pollution occurred…Chevron has said it is not liable and that Donziger and his associates orchestrated the writing of a key environmental report and bribed the presiding judge in Ecuador…

The plaintiffs have said they plan to continue efforts to enforce the judgment in other countries, including Canada, regardless of the outcome in the United States…