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New Hampshire Product Liability Lawsuits Against ExxonMobil and Citgo

After a decade of filings, motions and preparation, the MBTE product liability lawsuit trial against ExxonMobil and Citgo is finally about to start.

Although the trial is being held under the jurisdiction of the Merrimack Superior Court, the actual courtroom used will be a federal courtroom in Concord that is being loaned to the state for the trial. This special arrangement has been made to ensure a speedy trial with no other cases vying for courtroom availability.   

The case is about alleged groundwater contamination caused by methyl tertiary butyl ether (MBTE), which is a gasoline additive. New Hampshire filed suit against 26 oil companies in 2003, charging them with contaminating the state’s groundwater. The state was seeking $700 million to test all public water supply systems and private wells and perform cleanup operations where required.

MBTE lawsuits have been filed all over the nation in the last ten years, including by municipalities and individual owners of private wells. Most oil companies have settled all their MBTE liabilities out of court, except for one where a federal court jury awarded $105 million to New York City against ExxonMobil, which the company is now appealing against.
The New Hampshire case against ExxonMobil and Citgo is the only MBTE lawsuit which has actually reached a trial stage in a state court. The other 24 oil companies the state had named in the lawsuit have already agreed to multi-million dollar settlements.

Arguments over which court had jurisdiction tied up the case for a long time in the federal court, which finally sent it back to the state court for a trial. The case has 50,000 exhibits, 230 witnesses, and more than 100 lawyers representing all parties concerned.

ExxonMobil and Citgo claim they have already cleaned up their sites, and that the state lawsuit is mostly about contamination by other entities that are not a part of the lawsuit.