LONDON (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell has won a victory before London's High Court in a case brought by Nigerian farmers and fishermen who claimed their lands were polluted by the company's actions.

Shell had argued the case should be heard in Nigeria, and the court agreed.

U.K. law firm Leigh Day promised to appeal. The lawsuits were filed by the Ogale and Bille people alleging that decades of oil spills have fouled the water and destroyed the lives of thousands of fishermen and farmers in the Niger River Delta, where a Shell subsidiary has operated since the 1950s.

They brought their fight to Shell's home base because they say the Nigerian courts are too corrupt.