Court dismisses La Brea oil spill challenge

A NON-PROFIT organisation calling itself La Brea Environ Protectors failed to convince Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice of Appeal Charmaine Pemberton that they had sufficient interests in representing at least 101 residents in the La Brea area who said they were severely affected by a Petrotrin oil spill in December 2013.

The group had filed a multi-million-dollar claim against the now defunct oil company and the Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA).

They filed a procedural appeal after their claim failed to get off the ground, but this was yesterday dismissed by the two judges who held that while they were not unsympathetic with the residents’ plight, they were bound by the law as it relates to the interest of a party to bring a claim for breach of duty and pain and suffering in what was not filed as a public law matter.

Attorneys for Petrotrin and the OSHA, Russell Martineau SC and Ravi Nanga, argued at the appeal that the group failed to show where it suffered injury from the spill nor had medical reports been submitted to support the residents’ claims.

“The company was formed for convenience,” Nanga submitted.

The claim was filed at the Port of Spain Hall of Justice by Hove and Associates and alleged that Petrotrin “had acted negligently” and has caused the group’s members to suffer loss and damage.

In the claim filed affected from Coffee Beach, Point Sable and Vessigny and outlined ongoing medical problems as a consequence of the oil spills—which include nausea, passing of blood in the urine and faeces as well as fever. In their lawsuit, the group said Petrotrin in their clean-up activities “used the deadly chemical Corexit 9500 and in so doing exposed the residents of La Brea and environs to future medical risks as the said Corexit 9500 was banned from use on oil spills in the United Kingdom since 1988.”

Petrotrin, in its defence, said it never used the dispersant Corexit 9500 in the coastal waters of La Brea or on the shore, but was applied three nautical miles off Pointe-a-Pierre and any personnel exposed to the chemicals were provided with full personal protective equipment.