Hawthorne Land Co. v. Occidental Chem. Corp.

2002 WL 1976931 (E.D. La. 2002)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was the owner of land, and that had leased pipeline rights of way to Ds. The entire pipeline was 42 miles, constructed in 1966, and carried a sodium chloride solution. As early as 1985 until 1987, P contends that at least 29 leaks contaminated his land. P alleges in his complaint that Ds failed to clean up the discharges and merely covered over the contamination instead of removing it and thus the contaminants spread and migrated through P’s land. In his suit, P seeks general and punitive damages. P noticed depositions of Ds pursuant to 30(b)(6) and caused subpoenas to be issued for the production of documents. Ds contend the scope of discovery by P is too broad. They want discovery limited from 1982 to 1990 and have raised objections to many of the areas of examination and designation of documents wanted by P. P seeks discovery related to five pipelines that were used to transport sodium chloride in that he wants to show that Ds had knowledge of the leak problem and failed to act responsibly and that the installation of epoxy-lined pipeline is required. Ds wanted discovery limited to the Puckorius report which concluded that the leak problems were caused by microbes. The report described the pipeline operation for its first 19 years as stable with little or no unexpected leakage from internal corrosion. The report recommended corrective actions and indicated that with them the pipeline would return to historically negligible levels.