September 8th, 2016 

 

Following an eight-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Montgomery McCracken partners, won a $71.5 million judgment against CITGO Asphalt Refining and related companies in connection with a 2004 oil spill in the Port of Philadelphia.  

 

The partners, John J. Levy, Alfred J. Kuffler, Eugene O’Connor, Timothy J. Bergère and Tricia J. Sadd, represented the Frescati Shipping and Tsakos Shipping & Trading the Greek owners and operators of the M/V Athos I. The tanker was chartered by CITGO to transport oil from CITGO facilities in Venezuela to a CITGO asphalt refinery in Paulsboro, NJ.

 

On November 26, 2004, while the Athos I was attempting to dock at CITGO’s Paulsboro refinery on the Delaware River, her hull was punctured by a nine-ton anchor abandoned on the river bed. The anchor punched a hole in a cargo tank allowing over 264,000 gallons of heavy crude oil to spill into the river, closing the Port while emergency responders scrambled to contain the spill under difficult tidal and weather conditions.  

 

The oil spill response took nearly six months, involved over 1,100 oil spill response workers on both sides of the river across three states and cost in excess of $143 million.  The vessel also suffered millions of dollars in damages and was out of commission for many months.  

Read More: