Attorneys representing Crucians whose homes were sprayed with oil more than four years ago have asked a federal judge to consider sanctions against the company that studied the debacle but defied a court order to disclose the report, according to court records.
On May 16, U.S. Magistrate Judge Emile Henderson III ordered New York-based Sedgwick Claims Management Service to turn over their findings on the extent and severity of early-2021 damage to St. Croix homes from toxic sprays from the Limetree Bay refinery. Sedgwick, which had started their study in May 2021, did not surrender the evidence, claiming the Limetree Bay oil refinery entity that had hired the firm’s St. Croix office had not paid an outstanding $1.1 million invoice.
Judge Henderson ruled Friday that the invoice payment was between Sedgwick and its client, but the report was germane to suits against Limetree Bay associated companies by multiple St. Croix residents whose home cisterns were fouled by the refinery’s bungled restart attempt.
In a most recent court filing, attorneys for the St. Croix claimants said Sedgwick had plenty of time to disclose the until-now secret documents but willfully chose to flout the judge’s order. Sanctions against Sedgwick could include fines of $5,000 a day.
“Sedgwick blatantly ignored its obligations to comply with a valid court order. Sedgwick’s non-compliance was not inadvertent or due to mistake; it was an affirmative choice to defy the Court’s order,” attorneys for the oil-spray claimants wrote.
Sedgwick attorneys had argued that the deadline to disclose the document was the same as the deadline to appeal, meaning they were not afforded ample time to appeal.
Adding murk to the mire, the wife of Limetree attorney Robb Kuczynski confirmed Sunday she was a former Sedgwick employee. Amanda Kuczynski said she left her role as a general liability adjuster for Sedgwick in 2023 and had not worked on the Limetree contract or anything related to the oil spray incident. She said her departure from Sedgwick was unrelated to the Limetree case.
Sedgwick’s website lists just one current St. Croix employee.
Henderson imposed a new deadline in his ruling, giving Sedgwick until Aug. 18 to surrender the documents on the severity of the oil spray. In a twist, however, the plaintiffs were ordered to pay $25,000 to offset a portion of Sedgwick’s unpaid claim against Limetree.
Shortly after the early 2021 oil-release incidents, Limetree sought to both minimize the spray’s reach and emphasize the company’s response. In a June 2021 court filing, Jeffrey Charles, Limetree Terminal’s vice president and incident commander, said, “On or about May 12, 2021, an incident occurred at the Limetree facility in St Croix, USVI, which caused very small amounts of oil to disperse in certain areas downwind of Limetree.”
He said Sedgwick was hired the next day — the same day the Environmental Protection Agency ordered the refinery closed for 60 days.
And by June 10, “ … Limetree has washed over 700 cars arranged for thousands of roofs Cisterns, exterior walls, and other structures to be washed and has delivered over 16,000 cases of water to affected residents,” Charles said in a court filing.
Limetree would later argue delivering water to people with oily-cistern claims was too much of a financial burden. Several court rulings disagreed.
In September 2024, Limetree sought $44,000 from an oily-cistern claimant, successfully arguing that a law bringing the elderly man’s case to court quickly was unconstitutional.
The refinery encountered numerous problems during its brief restart in February 2021. It had been largely shuttered since 2012 by former owner Hovensa following several years of heavy losses. Hovensa declared bankruptcy in 2015. Limetree had hoped to take advantage of a brief period when sulfur regulations for maritime shipping fuel were changing. The refinery was originally slated to reopen before January 2020, but started its aborted run a year later. By then, worldwide shipping had slumped from the COVID pandemic.
