The Jacksonville, Maryland, ExxonMobil gas leak case is a series of lawsuits against ExxonMobil as a result of a February 2006 underground gasoline leak from an ExxonMobil service station in Jacksonville, Maryland.
Case history
In February 2006, nearly 26,000 gallons of gasoline leaked from a Jacksonville, Maryland, ExxonMobil station over a period of 37 days. Nearly 300 plaintiffs subsequently sued for over $1 billion for the contamination of their wells, loss of property value, physical and mental harm. The case put a spotlight on MTBE, a gasoline additive known to cause cancer in laboratory rats. Additionally, the lawsuits alleged ExxonMobil of fraud, a charge eligible for punitive damages if found guilty.
A first lawsuit was represented by Snyder, Weltchek, and Snyder. The fraud alleged in this suit was ExxonMobil's actions of intentional malice through their effective non-action in stopping the leak and providing adequate monitoring to prevent the spill.
Another large group of plaintiffs were represented by The Law Offices of Peter Angelos. In July 2011, the Angelos plaintiffs were awarded, in sum, half a billion dollars in compensatory damages and another 1.5 billion dollars in punitive damages for fraud. The fraud finding involved Exxon's failure to install a promised "bathtub" design to catch potential leaking gas, and then a subsequent failure to disclose that the "bathtub" liner was not in place. There was also a dispute as to when Exxon knew of the leak, and whether they first told the public the station was"closed for renovations" rather than disclosing the issue. ExxonMobil has appealed this ruling. On February 26, 2013, the Maryland Court of Appeals threw out much of the damages, including all of the $1 billion punitive damages and some of the $650 million compensatory damages.