For years, neither Joseph Grefer, a retired judge in New Orleans, nor his siblings gave very much thought to the heavy industry taking place on a large tract of land the family had owned for more than 100 years alongside an industrial canal in nearby Harvey, La. 

The contactors who owned Intercoastal Tubular Service, or ITCO, had known the Grefer family for ages. ITCO worked with many of Louisiana’s oil-and-gas drillers, including the massive Exxon Corp., to refurbish pipe – as much as 180,000 tons in a given year – and other critical equipment from the oil patch. For the Grefers, the lease had been a dependable source of income until 1987 – the year ITCO abruptly went out of business.

This was right about the same time that the news media and others were discovering a once closely-held secret among Big Oil executives and their scientific experts – that the pipe that once littered the Grefer’s property in Harvey had been covered in a dust called scale that was highly radioactive. Millions of pounds of this dangerous scale, laced with material such as radium-226 and radium-228, had contaminated the soil across much of the Grefers’ property. Our experts determined the clean-up costs would run in the millions of dollars. 

Unfortunately, the Grefers’ situation was not unique. All across the Deep South during the height of the oil-industry boom of the latter 20^th century, unscrupulous companies leased someone’s property for oil drilling or productions, or for pipe yards like ITCO, and then left behind a polluted mess. In addition to contaminated pipe and the soil that became polluted, these firms typically dug sludge pits or dumped liquid waste that was also radioactive. What’s more, their pollution often tainted the property belonging to neighbors or streams that ran through these parcels.

In the Grefer case, Exxon-Mobil (the two oil giants had merged right before the case went to trial in 2001) refused to consider fair compensation for cleaning up the property, so we took them to court. That was a big mistake on the part of the world’s largest oil company. Our team of lawyers and experts were able to show the jurors that Exxon had known for quite a long time about the radioactive danger from its tainted pipes — yet done nothing about it. 

In the end, the jury awarded the Grefers $56 million to clean up the property in addition to a whopping $1 billion (with a “b”) in punitive damages for the gross negligence of Exxon. Despite desperate appeals, an appeals court ultimately order the company to pay more than a quarter-billion dollars. It was the largest judgment of its kind in U.S. history.

In Louisiana, a family’s property is considered sacred. It’s never an easy decision to take legal action, but there comes a time when a landowner needs to assert his rights. Over the years, too many bad operators have abused trust and left properties scarred and badly polluted. That could pose a health threat to you, your family, or to friends who might want to use your land for activities such as hunting or fishing.

Our lawyers are recognized nationally as the experts in oilfield-contamination cases. The Grefer case was just one of many instances in which we successfully fought for the rights of property holders. If you are a property owner who’s had a bad experience with an out-and-gas company leasing your land or operating nearby, our attorneys would like to speak with you, and help you to get the justice that you and your family deserve.