Sumter County Record Journal (AL)
Date: February, 2000
SUMTER JURY AWARDS $5 MILLION RECORD VERDICT IN DIXIE OIL SUIT
A Sumter County jury awarded a record setting settlement of
$5,000,000 to an 80 year-old great grandmother in Cuba.
May Maude Hobba, who has worked for the past 27 years at Piggly
Wiggly in York, sued Dixie Oil Company because she claimed
petroleum by-products, gasoline and kerosene had been leaking
onto her property since 1987.
The property was purchased nearly 50 years ago by Hobbs’ father.
She has lived there ever since.
Nathan G. “Nat” Watkins, Jr., the local attorney for Hobbs,
explained Hobbs lives directly behind the Dixie Oil Station in
Cuba.
H noted, “Dixie discovered a substantial leak in 1987, but
basically did nothing about it.”
Hobbs was never informed of the leak, and it continued for 10
years before the Alabama Department of Environmental Management
(ADEM) was contacted according to Watkins.
“There was reckless disregard for the safety of Mrs. Hobbs and
her property,” said Watkins.
During the four days of the trial, expert testimony was heard by
the jury claiming removal of the contamination from Hobbs’
property could take between four and six years and cost up to
$500,000.
The jury awarded Hobbs $1,000,000 for compensatory damages to
decontaminate the property and an addition $4,000,000 in
punitive damages.
The jury heard evidence of cover-ups, concealment, failure to
report, failure to warn by Dixie and this led to the large award
of punitive damages,” remarked Watkins.
He concluded, “I would like to commend the jury for taking a
complicated and very important case, hearing several days of
testimony, including expert witnesses, and tendering a verdict
that will enable Hobbs to have her property cleaned up and
punish Dixie for their behavior.
[Keith Belt was trial Counsel along with Nathan Watkins]
