In a March 17 ruling, U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez of the Central District of California denied Plains All American Pipeline’s attempt to escape liability for the harm its 2015 Refugio State Beach oil spill in Santa Barbara caused to coastal property owners after the rupture of its Santa Barbara County pipeline.
The spill occurred when a 10-mile-long, 24-inch-wide Plains oil pipeline ruptured and according to Plaintiffs’ experts, discharged more than 10,000 barrels of crude oil into the ocean, which then washed up on beaches from Santa Barbara to Los Angeles.
Judge Gutierrez allowed most of the property class’s claims to proceed, saying they have shown sufficient injury to bring their claims before a jury.
In his assessment, Judge Gutierrez considered the contested issue of whether oil had to directly touch an owner’s property to justify a claim. He determined that “even owners whose property wasn’t touched by oil have enough of a nuisance case that Plains can’t foreclose it….Ultimately, the court concludes that it is up to the jury to determine if plaintiffs’ evidence of the spill of toxic oil on miles of beach rose to the level of nuisance for a ‘reasonable person,’ for the unoiled properties fronting the beach,” he wrote.
The Judge noted that Plains had not persuaded him that owners whose properties were not directly touched by oil could not recover damages for oil contamination. A. Barry Cappello of Cappello & Noel LLP, lead trial counsel for the class of plaintiffs, commented on the judge’s order that “The Court’s ruling is a major step in this long-fought case against Plains and we look forward to proving our claims for loss of use damages before a jury and also demonstrating that Plains’ reckless conduct justifies an award of punitive damages.”
