Sometimes simple common law principles are the best way to litigate against insurance companies. Specifically, if the insurance policy calls for a two-year limitations period to sue, make sure your attorney alleges common law negligence against the insurance carrier...
Oil Spill Cases
Basics of the “Oil Spill Act,” Article 12 of the New York Navigation Law
New York's Oil Spill Act, Article 12 of the New York Navigation Law, assigns strict liability to any person who has discharged petroleum, for all cleanup and removal costs associated with the cleanup of the petroleum, as well as all direct and indirect damages, such...
Albany County Executive Proposes New County Legislation on Crude Oil Spill Reporting
Could fracking in North Dakota's Bakken shale formation have a direct impact on New York State? Yes, but the impact isn't limited to prices at the gas pump or home energy heating bills. Instead, the fracking operations are leading to a surge in freight trains hauling...
Destruction of Oil Spill Investigation Data Ruled Not Sufficiently Prejudicial to Warrant the Dismissal of a Cost Recovery Action Under Navigation Law § 12
Does the destruction of plaintiff's technical data supporting disclosed oil spill investigation reports get a defendant off the hook? Apparently not, decided the Appellate Division (Third Dept.) in a November 2012 decision, rejecting a defense motion to reverse a...
Can Entering Into a CERCLA Consent Decree Preclude Subsequent Cost Recovery Actions?
Congress enacted the Superfund Act, whose formal name is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or CERCLA, in 1980 to promote the clean up (remediation) of properties, typically abandoned landfills or other sites, that had been...
Attorney General Eric Holder Announces Investigation into the Deepwater Horizon Drilling Rig Gulf Coast Oil Spill
James Periconi describes the kinds of environmental criminal charges that Attorney General Holder's investigation may result in, for example, release of pollutants dangerous to the environment (Clean Water Act), and the negligent if not knowing endangerment of the...
How do the terrible Gulf oil spill & two contaminated New York waterways compare?
I'm speaking about the Gulf of Mexico oil crisis that began in late April, of course. Few environmental catastrophes have shocked the nation more than the huge, continuing, unremitting flow of many thousands of gallons per hour of oil for seemingly an interminable...
The Third Department upholds jury award of $6,325,000 in penalties in an oil spill case
On February 10, 2009, the Appellate Division, Third Department, upheld a jury award of $6,325,000 in penalties against three defendants - property owner, gas supplier and station operator - as being not excessive and well within the bounds of the Navigation Law, where...
The Second Department Overturns a Jury Award of Stigma Damages in Oil Spill Case
In a recent oil spill case under the Navigation Law, an intermediate state appeals court, the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court, Second Department overturned a $225,000 jury award of "stigma" damages (plus $61,600 fees award) to a private homeowner for...
Absence of Property Damage During Policy Period
Under New York Law, property damage is deemed to occur within the period of an occurrence-based policy, if injury-in-fact takes place during the policy period. See Continental Casualty Co. v. Rapid-American Corp., 177 A.D.2d 61 (App. Div., 1992). An insurer may only...
