Plains Defeats Class Status Bid in Suit Over 2015 Oil Spill

摘要

Illinois landowners who sued Plains All American Pipeline LP over a 2015 oil spill can’t proceed as a class because the proposed group of plaintiffs is too vaguely defined, a federal court inthe state ruled in a win for the company.The proposed class consisted of people who owned or leased properties in the Pocahontas, Grant Fork, and Highland, Ill., communities from July 10, 2015, to the present. But the definitiondoesn’t include a suffering a specific harm during a certain time frame or in a particular way, according to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois.The fact that the spill happened isn’t enough to include in the class everyone who lives or owns property in the vicinity of its path, the court said Tuesday.