Local News in Brief : Newport Beach : Jury Levies $1-Million Award Against Oil Firm

An Orange County jury has levied a $1-million award against a Newport Beach-based oil refining company that broke its contract with a Long Beach crude oil distributor.

The jury found in a verdict reached Monday that the San Joaquin Refining Co., which has corporate headquarters in Newport Beach and runs a refining plant in Bakersfield, violated its contract to purchase 3,500 barrels of crude oil a day.

As a result, the jury ordered the firm to pay $1,039,006 to Edgington Oil, a Long Beach company that had agreed to sell the Kern River crude oil through the end of 1986.

The refinery abruptly broke its contract in January, 1986, to buy crude oil through Edgington when it discovered it could avoid paying a 35-cent-per-barrel premium by buying the crude oil directly from Texaco, Edgington lawyers said.

“And so Edgington was stuck with the oil and ended up having to pay half a million dollars to Texaco (from whom it had bought the crude oil) to get out of its own contract,” said Earl Benjamin, attorney for Edgington.

Majid Mojibi, president of the San Joaquin Refining Co., said “I am sure that we will appeal the verdict,” but he refused any further comment on the case. His company, small by oil standards, refines crude oil in Bakersfield for distribution around the West, including Orange County.