Oil Prophets

Spring 2013

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LEGAL CORNER The Alabama Underground and Aboveground Storage Tank Trust Fund A Quick "Refresher" H. Dean Mooty, Jr., Mooty & Associates, P.C. W hile we continue to believe that with the improvement of equipment technology, the number of reported releases from underground storage tanks would be on the decline – and they appear to be – they nonetheless continue. Similarly, while I would argue that we have fortunately not had an overwhelming number of third party lawsuits in the 25-year history of the Alabama Underground and Aboveground Storage Tank Trust Fund (the "Trust Fund"), those lawsuits continue. There have probably been half a dozen filed in the last eight to twelve months. With these two basic premises, I find that there is continued confusion on two or three points as to the application and operation of the Trust Fund, particularly in the context of these third party lawsuits. First, there are actually two "deductibles" in place when a tank owner is sued at a Trust Fund-eligible site. As most tank owners know, when you have a reported release, the tank owner is responsible under the Trust Fund statute for the first $5,000 of cleanup costs. This is with an underground storage tank. The deductible is $10,000 where an aboveground storage tank is involved. What many tank owners don't realize is that if they are sued by an adjoining or nearby landowner claiming that the release of product from the Trust Fund-eligible tank "site" has impacted their property, any judgment entered against the tank owner in such lawsuit or any settlement of that lawsuit requires that tank owner to pay another $5,000 deductible, i.e. the first $5,000 of any such judgment and/or settlement. As with the clean-up deductible, the second deductible is $10,000 if the release involves an aboveground storage tank. In at least one out of every two such cases I am involved in, 16 OIL PROPHETS SPRING 2013

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