A $70 million settlement for private property owners with easements for the oil pipeline formerly owned by Plains All American is now final. The appeal period for the class action settlement expired on October 17, 2024, and settlement payments will be made in the first half of November. The settlement resolves all class claims brought by the property owners. (Grey Fox, LLC et. al v. Plains All American Pipeline, L.P., et. al, U.S. District Court, Central District, Case Number 2:16-cv-03157-PSG-JEM). The lawyers from Cappello & Noël LLP, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP and Keller Rohrback LLP represented the class, and the firms were equal partners as class counsel in the action.
The lawsuit was first filed on May 6, 2016 when the pipeline was owned and operated by Plains. Subsequently, Plains sold its interests and the pipeline is now owned by Pacific Pipeline Company, which agreed to the settlement. In the settlement, Pacific Pipeline agreed to an extensive repair plan, strict compliance with federal pipeline regulations, and adherence to the federal consent decree which Plains entered into several years after the rupture occurred. Pacific Pipeline also agreed that the pipeline will not be replaced with a second, new pipeline, and will also take the necessary steps to install automatic shutoff valves on the pipeline to ensure safe operation.
“The settlement ends a nine-year battle to win compensation for the property owners whose land is burdened with the pipeline,” says Barry Cappello, managing partner of Cappello & Noël LLP. “It was a long process, but justice has finally been delivered.”
The settlement class includes more than 170 parcels of privately owned land through which the pipeline runs. The settlement administrator, JND, will send payments directly to the record owners of the class properties in two installments; the second payments are projected to be made in early July 2025. The minimum payment is approximately $50,000, and the mean payment across the class is approximately $250,000.
The lawyers who secured this settlement previously won a major settlement for fishers and coastal property owners hurt by the Plains oil spill. The same lawyers continue to pursue justice for workers and small businesses from the local offshore oil industry, who lost jobs and profits because of the Plains oil spill and pipeline shutdown.
