Federal Judge Denies Class Certification In Suit Over BP Texas City Refinery Emissions

A federal judge has denied class certification for approximately 14,300 individuals who lived near BP’s Texas City refinery and sought $10 billion in damages over alleged exposure to sulfur dioxide emissions, among other claims (Cannon v. BP Products North America).

In his Sept. 30 memorandum and order, Judge Gregg Costa of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas said that because each of the putative plaintiffs seeks individualized damages for property value diminution that vary significantly from plaintiff to plaintiff, and do not flow directly from their request for injunctive relief, “the court determines that ...