New proposed class alleges possible long-term injury from oil spill

A Texas company's alleged failure to maintain a pipeline that spilled about 25,000 gallons of crude oil off the coast of Orange County will result in widespread and long-term health effects to young, vulnerable children, a proposed class action states.

It's too early to assign blame, the company said in a statement Monday.

Filed Sunday by The Tidrick Law Firm in Oakland, the complaint seeks $5 million in damages and injunctive relief. The complaint asks a federal court to order Houston-based Amplify Energy to put together a court-supervised and administered trust fund and a medical testing protocol to monitor the health of affected children. The program would help diagnose any early stage ailments and mental health illnesses associated with the toxic crude oil exposure, the plaintiffs' lawyers, Joel B. Young and Steven G. Tidrick, said. N.S.T., a minor, by and through her guardian ad litem Michaelangelo St. Thomas v. Amplify Energy, et al., 8:21-cv-1722 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 17, 2021).

The oil spill was detected on Oct. 2 near Huntington Beach. Federal officials have said the spill might have been caused by the anchor of a cargo ship tearing the pipeline 5 miles offshore. Beaches were closed but have reopened.

While the proposed class action does not identify whether the named plaintiff experienced physical harm from oil exposure, "we know for a certainty based on solid, peer-reviewed research that children in the area have already been damaged in the sense that they should be medically monitored as a result," Tidrick said in a phone interview Monday.

The complaint makes several references to research published this year that analyzed long-term health consequences for children from the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The complaint accuses Amplify Energy of delaying reporting the spill to federal authorities.

Company executives have publicly denied there was any delay.

Amplify Energy said in a statement Monday that it is working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and other state and federal agencies to clean up the oil.

"These investigations take time, given their complexity, and Amplify Energy remains committed to cooperating with the federal and state agencies looking into this matter," the company's statement reads. "Offshore energy development and maritime traffic can and have coexisted in this region for decades and we are committed to working with maritime stakeholders to investigate this incident and ensure something like this does not happen again."

The company said that as of Oct. 14, the U.S. Coast Guard believes the size of the spill was approximately 588 barrels.

Amplify Energy already faces a host of possible federal class actions filed by mariners, commercial fishers and beachfront businesses who say they will suffer economic losses due to the spill.

Wylie A. Aitken, partner at Aitken Aitken Cohn in Santa Ana, who filed a class action Monday on behalf of a whale-watching business, homeowners and commercial boat captains, said he was surprised to see a personal injury/battery case already filed as it seemed premature. East Meets West Excursions, et al v. Amplify Energy Corp., 8:21-cv-1725 (C.D. Cal., filed Oct. 18, 2021).

Aitken said he has taken a wait-and-see approach before filing any personal injury actions.

"Illnesses may arise and this is definitely worth monitoring, so I guess some plaintiffs want to hold their place in line. The BP oil spill was much more dramatic in size and impact than what we're fortunately dealing with in Orange County," he said.

Plaintiffs may not know the full extent of an injury right away, which is probably why the children's counsel want to establish a fund program for the class, Aitken observed. He cited the mass tort asbestos litigation and the Bayer Roundup weedkiller cases as examples where defendant companies set up nationwide funding programs to settle claims in the likelihood that more plaintiffs could pursue litigation even if they don't exhibit symptoms for years.

"In those cases, plaintiffs have substantial evidence that Roundup can cause cancer and serious injury, and some have already exhibited injury and received some form of significant treatment," Aitken said. "They have scientific data that others will be injured as well. The asbestos cases are also a classic example where people tried to determine what caused this terrible disease. Once they defined the cause, they knew there could be people out there who haven't yet developed symptoms."

Bringing a personal injury case requires the demonstration that a legitimate, verifiable injury already occurred, Aitken said.

"There are all types of things that can be caused by every possible exposure to every possible chemical we think of. We can't just file any case in the abstract based on the theory that we know this will happen someday, especially if you are asking to create a class," Aitken said.