Damage Assessment from Oil Tanker Reef Grounding Needs New Look

Two companies won a second look at their liability for environmental damage stemming from an oil tanker that ran aground in coral reefs off the coast of Puerto Rico after a federal appeals court ruling Thursday.

There wasn’t enough evidence to prove the entities are on the hook for the incident, the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said.

The preponderance of the evidence standard of review must be used to establish the tanker risked spilling oil into a coral reef under federal jurisdiction, not the arbitrary-and-capricious standard the district court utilized, Chief Judge David J. Barron wrote ...