An Ecuadorean court dealt the plaintiffs a setback Tuesday in a $27 billion environmental contamination lawsuit against Chevron Corp., accepting the presiding judge's request to be removed from the case.

Judge Juan Evangelista Nunez asked to be recused earlier this month so the government could investigate Chevron's allegations that he was involved in a bribery scheme.

A regional court in the northern state of Sucumbios accepted Nunez's request on Tuesday and named Judge Nicolas Zambrano as his replacement, said Pablo Fajardo, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs.

A verdict had been expected this year, but Fajardo told The Associated Press it will take Nunez's replacement "four to five months to get to know a case that has some 17,000 documents."

The plaintiffs, who say they represent 30,000 inhabitants of the region, seek damages for cleanup and to compensate for illnesses they attribute to oil-drilling contamination from 1964-1990, when Texaco operated a consortium in the Amazon rain forest in which state-owned Petroecuador was a partner.

Chevron, which bought Texaco in 2001, says it was absolved of any liability by a 1998 agreement with Ecuador's government that followed a multimillion-dollar cleanup.

Nunez asked to be removed this month after Chevron released clandestinely recorded video in which two businessmen repeatedly ask him if he planned to rule against Chevron and he is heard to answer "yes."

Chevron says the businessmen were asked to pay million-dollar bribes for a remediation contract by a political ally of President Rafael Correa, who has expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs.

Chevron has long claimed it can't get a fair trial in Ecuador. It contends the judicial system is corrupt and that the alleged bribery scheme proves as much.

Nunez denies involvement in any such scheme and says the video was "edited and manipulated."

The plaintiffs, meanwhile, say they suspect the businessmen were colluding with Chevron in a sting operation aimed at discrediting both the judge and Correa's government.

Fajardo said Chevron is desperate and "doing barbaric things outside the law" because it knows it is going to lose the case. A court-appointed expert has recommended the plaintiffs be awarded $27 billion in damages.

Chevron called Nunez's recusal a half measure.

"His past rulings need to be annulled," said Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson. "If the court is going to exhibit any credibility, it needs to take this a step further." He said that under Nunez, crucial information was not admitted into the court record.

Chevron says it will refuse to comply with any ruling against it in the case.

"The case in Ecuador went off the tracks several years back and became illegitimate," Robertson said. "The appointment of a new judge would not fix what is broken in this case."

Last week, Chevron sought to force the Ecuadorean government into international arbitration. It claims Ecuador, because of Petroecuador's involvement in the Texaco-led consortium, should share in any liability.

An attempt by Chevron to press similar arbitration in the United States failed in June when the U.S. Supreme Court rejected its petition to reconsider lower court rulings.