Achieving a Just Judgment in the Nation’s Capital

We helped our former and current industrial property owner clients prevail against a demand from a neighboring property owner for damages and cleanup costs allegedly resulting from historic contamination.

Hess Corporation, the former owner of a bulk petroleum storage terminal on the Anacostia River in Washington D.C. that had operated from the early 20th century until the early 1980s, and Douglas Development, a real estate developer who had purchased the closed terminal from Hess, turned to us for help when a neighboring property owner claimed that petroleum migrating from the terminal had contaminated its property. We defended both Hess and Douglas in the neighbor’s federal court litigation seeking both recovery of $12 million in damages and remediation costs allegedly caused by that contamination, and a court order directing Hess and Douglas to clean up any remaining contamination.

The Nossaman team strenuously opposed those claims, and on our motion the U. S. District Court in Washington, D.C. granted summary judgment in our clients’ favor, dismissing nearly all of the plaintiff’s claims as barred by the statute of limitations. Following that decision, we successfully negotiated dismissal of the plaintiff’s remaining claims with prejudice.