A complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Arkansas against ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, LLC and Mobil Pipe Line Company (collectively, “Exxon”) addressing the 2013 release of oil from the...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal addressing whether a mixture of petroleum and chemicals constitutes “oil” under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA). In doing so, the Court has effectively rejected the efforts of...more
In 1990, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act, also known as the OPA. The act was in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989, and it amended the Clean Water Act of 1972. Its purpose was to avoid oil spills from...more
On October 5, 2021, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois denied the plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification in Morr v. Plains All American Pipeline, LLC 2021 WL 4478660 (S.D. Illinois,...more
US DOJ recently announced a settlement of federal and state natural resource damage (NRD) claims asserted by federal and state trustees under the Oil Pollution Act (OPA) and state law against CITGO Petroleum Corporation...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently reversed a lower court decision that held that the release of thousands of gallons of oil from a submarine power-transmission cable into Long Island Sound was not...more
Does a charterer that agrees to nominate a “safe berth” to load and discharge cargo guarantee the berth’s safety for the vessel? If you are litigating this issue in the U.S. courts within the Second and Third Circuits, the...more
The ITC incident - On Sunday, March 17, 2019, at approximately 10:00 a.m., a storage tank caught fire at the Intercontinental Terminals Company (ITC) Deer Park facility, near Houston, Texas. The fire burned for several...more
Three environmental organizations filed a Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (“Complaint”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against the United States Environmental...more
On January 25, the Texas Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in the case of Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and Anadarko E&P Co. v. Houston Cas. Co., et al., characterized as an “interlocutory permissive appeal,” reversing the...more
There are few questions more important in the context of oil spill liability than who constitutes a Responsible Party under the U.S.’s Oil Pollution Act (OPA). Recently, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in...more
In an important decision of first impression construing the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA,” 33 U.S.C. §§2701 et seq.), the Fifth Circuit has held the owner and operator (“Nature’s Way”) of a “dominant mind” tugboat liable...more
On March 29, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit decided an important oil spill cost recovery case: In re Petition of Frescati Shipping Co., Ltd. v. Citgo Asphalt Refining Co., et al. It is a case concerning the...more
The Foreign Spill Protection Act of 2017 amends the Oil Pollution Act and Clean Water Act to hold foreign-based offshore facilities liable for spills entering U.S. waters - New law establishes oil spill liability in the...more
In two issues of first impression, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals read the complete defense provisions for oil spills under the Oil Pollution Act (“OPA”) to strictly construe the defenses and make them only very narrowly...more
On November 7, in U.S. v. American Commercial Lines, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling that American Commercial Lines (ACL), the owner of a tug boat whose contracted...more
On September 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit released a significant Oil Pollution Act (OPA) ruling. The case is Ironshore Specialty Insurance Company v. U.S., et al. The Court of Appeals affirmed the...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that a responsible party under the federal Oil Pollution Act (OPA) could seek contribution for cleanup costs—even though they may include purely economic damages—from a partially liable...more
In a recent ruling dated June 9, 2017, In re: Complaint of Settoon Towing LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit interpreted the statutory language of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) to grant the responsible...more
Maritime law is known for its “hoary” precedents from long ago. But in Settoon Towing v. Marquette Transportation Co., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rejected an aging principle of maritime law in...more
New regulations have been proposed to establish procedures for the certification and operation of natural resource damage restoration banks in Louisiana. These proposed regulations can be found in Title 43 of the Louisiana...more
The 1989 grounding of the EXXON VALDEZ spurred Congress to enact the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA) to remedy what it believed to be a patch-work compensation scheme where liability and damages were subject to federal...more
Action Item: The U.S. Coast Guard published a Final Rule increasing limits of liability for vessels, deepwater ports, and onshore facilities under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (“OPA 90”). The raise in liability limits also...more