Battle over collision between Kirby and K Line dismissed as warring sides reach settlement

A US judge has brought an end to a lawsuit in Texas over the spill that resulted from the collision between Kirby tank barges and a K Line LPG carrier after a settlement ended the fighting.

District judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown dismissed the case in the US federal court in Galveston in a three-sentence order.

Refiner Grey Rock and Alf Aanonsen trade barbs as tanker contract falls apart

Read more

“The court has been advised that a settlement has been reached between the plaintiff and the defendants,” he wrote.

Kirby, the Houston tug and barge giant, launched the lawsuit in 2019 after the spill of at least 11,000 barrels of reformate, an ingredient used in gasoline blending, when K Line’s 82,400-cbm VLGC Genesis River (built 2018) collided with two of its tank barges.

TradeWinds reported in January 2022 that the settlement talks were underway with more than 2,000 parties, including claimants in the local seafood industry who have contended that the spill slammed local oyster and shrimp populations.

Those discussions were taking place amid warring over damages that followed a ruling by Brown that companies behind the Genesis River — K Line subsidiary K Line Energy Ship Management, FPG Shipholding Panama and Genesis River Shipping — bore full liability.

The total damages sought in the case are not clear, but the claimants were asserting figures in the millions of dollars. An expert for some of the claimants found that one company with five oyster bed leases lost $6.15m from the incident, although opposing experts questioned whether there was any harm to the seafood industry.

Court records show a settlement for a swathe of the claims was reached in January, although details are under seal.

In Brown’s latest order, the judge said parties have until 7 June to let him know if the settlement could not be finalised.

In September 2021, the US federal government reached a settlement over environmental damages from the spill that would see Kirby pay more than $2.1m, which it could recover from the $17.4m that the Genesis River companies were found to owe the barge owner.