Privy Council revives La Brea oil spill challenge

ALMOST 100 residents of La Brea who were affected by an oil spill in December 2013, will get an opportunity to fight their multi-million dollar negligence lawsuit against the now-defunct Petrotrin at the Privy Council in London.

The residents are represented by non-profit organisation La Brea Environ Protectors. This week the group received the permission of Privy Council judges, Lords Wilson, Briggs and Kitchin to appeal, reviving their legal challenge which was shut down by the Court of Appeal in 2019.

Attorney Farai Hove Masaisai, of the firm Hove and Associates, are seeking the interests of the residents.

In February 2019, La Brea Environs Protectors failed to convince Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Justice of Appeal Charmaine Pemberton they had sufficient interests in representing at least 101 residents in the La Brea area who said they were severely affected by the 2013 oil spill.

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 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.

The claim alleged that Petrotrin “had acted negligently” and has caused the group’s members to suffer loss and damage.

It also alleged that residents were hired to clean Coffee Beach, Point Sable and Vessigny beaches without proper safety equipment.

The lawsuit said residents suffered 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.

The group also 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.

In November 2018, State-owned Petrotrin was restricted with its loss-making refinery operations being shut down, and the company’s exploration and fuel distribution operations being vested in two new companies.