Personal Injury Law

Company Gets Wrong Address and Fills Long Island Man?s Basement with Heating Oil

By Paul Napoli

A Long Island man came home from work Tuesday afternoon to a find a huge mess in his basement.

Lance Leach, of Freeport, found that his old heating oil supplier had made a mistake with the address and pumped heating oil into the old exterior fill pipe. The problem is that Leach removed the heating oil tank over a year ago when he switched to natural gas. 75 gallons of heating oil poured into Leach's newly renovated basement, destroying it and causing a greasy, smelly mess.

Leach told Newsday that he called the fuel company, O'Connor Brothers Fuel in Freeport, who immediately dispatched a remediation company to rectify the mistake. However, 41-year-old Leach has moved his wife, two sons and a 91-year-old family member to a local hotel due the overpowering smell.

Kevin Rooney, chief executive of the Oil Heat Institute of Long Island, a trade group based in Hauppauge, told Newsday that this isn't an isolated event and that there are about six such mistakes on Long Island each year. He said it usually the responsibility of the homeowner to comply with building regulations by permanently removing or sealing the fill and vent pipes when they remove the residential oil tanks. "If that had happened here, there would not have been an accident,' Rooney said.

Newsday reported that an adjuster from Leach's insurance company inspected the damage in the basement on Wednesday and that Leach will wait to see what the insurance companies decide.

If you have suffered an injury or property damage, or a family member has suffered an injury due to someone else's negligence, you may be entitled to compensation. Call Napoli Bern Ripka LLP at 888-529-4669, we have the experience and knowledge needed to help you file a claim for damages and see it through to its resolution. Our experienced attorneys can answer your questions and ease your concerns so that you can concentrate on healing from your injury.

Full post as published by New York City Personal Injury Lawyer on February 02, 2010 (boomark / email).