Nov 20, 2007 7:23 pm US/Pacific
Fishermen File Class-Action Suit In SF Bay Spill
HALF MOON BAY (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ―
Two commercial fishermen filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday over the massive oil spill that fouled San Francisco Bay.
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John Tarantino of Corte Madera and Steven Fitz of San Mateo filed the suit on behalf of fishermen who claim they have suffered economic injury as a result of the spill.
The state banned Bay Area commercial and sport fishing in the days after the Cosco Busan container ship dumped 58,000 gallons of oil into the water after careening into a pylon of the Bay Bridge.
About 80 percent of the crab catch is pulled in the two to three weeks ahead of Thanksgiving, said Fitz.
"Those two weeks," he said, "they're gone."
The lawsuit alleges the spill was the result of "reckless indifference, inattention and mismanagement among those responsible for the control" of the 68,000-ton freighter.
It also contends that toxic bunker fuel "can have an overwhelmingly detrimental effect on human and marine life" and that the contamination may pose a long-term as well immediate threat to Bay fish.
Fitz and Tarantino announced their filing of the suit at Pillar Point Harbor in Half Moon Bay, where crab pots sat stacked and unused. They expect 15 to 20 others to join their suit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages for harm done to current and future generations of sea life.
They also hope the court will create a fund that would employ experts to test Bay fish to determine whether it is safe for human consumption now and in future years. The lawsuit also asks for court supervision of a cleanup program.
The lawsuit names as a defendant John Cota, 59, of Petaluma, who was piloting the ship when it struck the bridge in dense fog on Nov. 7 and sustained a 100-foot-long gash. The suit also names the owner of the Cosco Busan - Hong Kong-based Regal Stone Ltd.; and the company that leased it - Hanjin Shipping Co. Ltd. of Korea.
Darrell Wilson, a spokesman for Regal Stone, said he could not comment specifically on the lawsuit.
"Regal Stone's first and most important concern is the response. We are not discussing the investigation or any legal matters out of respect for the process," he said.
Tuesday's lawsuit was filed in San Francisco Superior Court by the Burlingame firm of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy.
"It's a loss of livelihood and fear that you're not going to be able to enjoy the success you've had in the past," said attorney Frank Pitrie in explaining the rationale for the suit.
Last week a crab boat operator filed a similar lawsuit in federal court.
San Francisco attorney William Audet, who filed the federal suit, said he expects the two lawsuits to be coordinated in some way and said there is "no question a lot of other cases will be filed."
Pitrie predicted the two cases may proceed on parallel tracks in state and federal court because they are based on somewhat different legal theories.
While both include claims of negligence, the Superior Court lawsuit also includes claims under a California oil spill prevention and response law. The federal lawsuit is based on admiralty law.
In the federal case on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti in San Francisco signed an arrest warrant requiring federal marshals to detain the ship along with another order allowing a private company, Marine Lenders Services LLC, to act as custodian.
Audet said the arrest warrant is an admiralty law mechanism intended to give plaintiffs a chance to seek the sale of a ship in order to be sure they will receive any compensation they might be awarded. He said he hopes the outcome of the action will be that an insurance company for the ship's owners will post a bond that would cover any possible future compensation.
Audet said he hoped to have the orders served on the ship soon. Wilson had no comment on the arrest warrant.
The Cosco Busan is currently at a repair facility in San Francisco, according to Bernadette Fees, a California Fish and Game Department spokeswoman at the U.S. Coast Guard's Unified Command Joint Information Center for the oil spill.
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