Evergreen Resource Recovery LLC can bring its dispute over a $632,000 bill for the costs of cleaning up an oil spill in Louisiana before a jury after the Fifth Circuit said Thursday that the Seventh Amendment guarantees such a right for claims under the Oil Pollution Act.
The federal government sued E.R.R. after it refused to pay for oil removal and soil remediation after a spill from its wastewater treatment facility on the Mississippi River. The company demanded a jury trial, and the Seventh Amendment guarantees a jury in suits at common law. But the lower court denied the company’s ...