Philip Moses Gutierrez Jr earns money by hosting social gatherings on Huntington Beach but his events have all been canceled indefinitely due to a recent oil spill. As a result of losing his livelihood, Gutierrez sued.
“There's no way to really quantify the relief at this point because we just don't know the scope,” said Gutierrez’s attorney Alex Straus. “They are still in the cleanup phase and we don't even know how many gallons were released. “I know there are tarballs being found as far south as San Diego.”
An estimated 144,000 gallons of crude oil spilled from a 17.7-mile pipeline on the Port of Long Beach Elly platform on Oct. 1, according to media reports.
“One of the main things as a law firm and a member of the community is to get some injunctive relief for where policies can be changed and trying to use this as an opportunity to better the security, the protocols, and the communication internally in the company and with the government so that an accident next time can be dealt with much more efficiently than this,” Straus told the Southern California Record.
Gutierrez v Amplify Energy, Beta Operating Company, et al was filed in the Western Division of the Central District of California federal court on Oct. 4, just three days after the oil spill.
The complaint includes the following counts.
Negligence. Straus said he plans to use published reports, government investigations, and anything the company has released in addition to documents and information obtained through discovery to prove negligence.
“Having anchors hit oil pipelines is a known hazard and so you have to protect against that and then in the way that it was reported that the oil shut off also appear to have been done improperly,” Strauss said. “These are allegations but so far it appears that there was significant negligence.”
Response cost under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act. "What we know is that oil pipes don't just burst with a 13-inch gash but there’s a lot we don’t know so I couldn't put a dollar figure on anything,” he said. “As compared to BP in the Gulf Coast, this spill was much, much closer to shore, which really is a problem for the ocean life and others.”
Public nuisance/trespass.
“The oil has seeped across its boundaries and impacted the public-at-large as opposed to any one particular landowner,” Straus said. “It does seem like the company and those involved were not as diligent as you would imagine or expect in terms of when it was first known and how the authorities were alerted.”
Medical monitoring.
“Medical monitoring is really a claim in large part for when you have been exposed to a toxin but it hasn't manifested itself in disease yet but the medical community understands that if you're exposed to certain things over a certain period of time, that you have that potential for illness,” Straus added.