In a ruling on December 2, 2014, remanding to state court the case of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, against 19 oil and gas companies, U.S. District Court Judge Jay Zainey addressed the issue of whether the Parish’s claims against multiple oil and gas companies could be litigated together in a single lawsuit. Judge Zainey found that the cases could be joined together when it was “commonsensical to litigate them together.” Despite the fact that the defendants had argued that the lawsuit was based on violations of over 1,000 different state permits issued to different companies at different times, Judge Zainey found that the claims against all defendants were based on identical causes of action and legal theories. Accordingly, the factual overlap was sufficient for the claims to be litigated in one action.
Plaquemines Parish had proposed grouping the permit violations according to the different oil and gas fields in which they occurred for trial. Judge Zainey did not determine this issue in his ruling, but left the decision to the sound discretion of the trial judge.
Other cases filed by Plaquemines Parish and Jefferson Parish pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana were on hold pending the outcome of Judge Zainey’s ruling on the motion to remand.
Following Judge Zainey’s ruling, the case and other similar lawsuits filed by Plaquemines Parish will be remanded to the 25th Judicial District Court. For further updates on this litigation, contact Toni Ellington at (504) 599-8500.
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