In a case of first impression, the Hon. Ross R. Anzaldi rejected ExxonMobil Corporation’s efforts to limit its liability for natural resource damages by ruling that the Spill Compensation and Control Act is retroactive with respect to the Department of Environmental Protection’s claims for the restoration of and compensation for the loss and loss of use of the state’s natural resources damaged or destroyed during nearly a century of operations at its former refinery sites in Bayonne and Linden (the Bayway refinery).
The ruling came in a denial of ExxonMobil’s motion to dismiss all claims for natural resource damages (“NRD”) caused by any discharges of hazardous substances which occurred prior to the April 1, 1977, effective date of the Spill Act . ExxonMobil had operated the Bayonne site as a refinery from 1879 to 1972 and continues to maintain a small operation there, while the Bayway refinery and petrochemical complex which is transversed by the New Jersey Turnpike was owned and operated from 1909 until it was sold in 1993, and is currently owned by Conoco Phillips.
