Unocal Loses Pollution Suit: A federal jury...
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
Unocal Loses Pollution Suit: A federal jury ruled that Unocal Corp. lied about polluted land that it sold to Gopher Oil Co. of Minnesota and ordered Unocal to pay Gopher $1.8 million, plus cleanup costs. Gopher sued Unocal in 1988 in connection with a two-acre site in Minneapolis that Unocal sold to Gopher in 1980. Soil and water at the site, which was used to store petroleum products but is now vacant, were found to be contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals in the early 1980s. Gopher had charged that Unocal and its subsidiary intentionally failed to disclose that the site was contaminated when Gopher bought it.
