WATERSOUND, FL-The St. Joe Company has filed a lawsuit against Halliburton Energy Services Inc. for its role in the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. Halliburton was the cementing contractor for the Macondo well that blew out on April 20, 2010, resulting in the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

The lawsuit represents the first legal action taken by St. Joe since the Deepwater Horizon incident. The company owns roughly 577,000 acres in Florida, 70% of which are within 15 miles of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico.

Since the incident, St. Joe has suffered a substantial decline in its enterprise value, according to the lawsuit, including direct costs, an interruption to its business and the reduction in the value of its assets. For example, the company’s stock price declined by more than 40% in the days following the explosion. Analysts estimate the damage to the company’s assets somewhere in the range of $1 billion, according to William Brewer III, partner at Bickel & Brewer and lead counsel for St. Joe.