Louisiana "legacy litigation" refers to hundreds of lawsuits in the state seeking damages allegedly related to environmental harm caused by oil and gas exploration and production activities. For landowners, legacy lawsuits in Louisiana have been likened to winning the lottery. Indeed, Louisiana generally remains an unwelcome venue for oil and gas companies facing allegations that properties they operated or had interests in are contaminated by historic oil and gas operations. Often, these landowners seek hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars in damages concerning property that is valued at a minute fraction of those amounts, arguing that the property should be restored beyond regulatory standards to its "original" condition. However, oil and gas companies question whether landowners awarded such damages will ever conduct such a restoration.
Legacy litigation increased in volume significantly after the Louisiana Supreme Court’s decision in Corbello v. Iowa Production, 850 So. 2d 686 (La. 2003). In Corbello, landowners were permitted to recover substantial damages for remediation that were not tethered to the value of the land, and the owners were not required to use the damages to actually restore the property. The Louisiana Supreme Court did not end its analysis in Corbello with an application of the law to the facts. It opined that there was a "need for a comprehensive body of legislation wherein the state would oversee the problem in oilfield waste sites." Id. at 696.
