Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Appeals court gives BP a win in settlement dispute

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Gulf of Mexico oil spill: Appeals court gives BP a win in settlement dispute
AP | Oct 3, 2013, 06.56 AM IST

NEW ORLEANS: A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived BP's claims that a judge's interpretation of a settlement over its 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could force the company to pay billions of dollars for bogus or inflated claims by businesses.

A ruling by a divided three-judge panel of the 5th US circuit court of appeals threw out US district judge Carl Barbier's rulings on the dispute between BP and attorneys who brokered the multibillion-dollar settlement in 2012. The panel sent the case back to Barbier with an order that he craft a "narrowly-tailored injunction that allows the time necessary for deliberate reconsideration of these significant issues."

The April 2010 blowout of BP's Macondo well off the Louisiana coast triggered an explosion that killed 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and led to millions of gallons of oil spilling into the Gulf. Shortly after the disaster, BP agreed to create a $20 billion compensation fund that was administered at first by the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, led by attorney Kenneth Feinberg.

BP argued that Barbier and court-appointed claims administrator Patrick Juneau misinterpreted terms of the settlement. Plaintiffs' lawyers countered that BP undervalued the settlement and underestimated how many claimants would qualify for payments.


Read more: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Gulf-of-Mexico-oil-spill-Appeals-court-gives-BP-a-win-in-settlement-dispute/articleshow/23436646.cms

[Dustlawyer]

1. K&R! I work representing the victims and I can tell you that BP is having their cake and eating it

too! They created the crappy thing which arbitrarily excludes many victims but complain that some companies are getting paid for losses unrelated to the spill. The examples they give, at first glance, seem to support their proposition. One, a rice mill a 100 miles inland made a claim and got paid. Sounds like they have a point until you did into the facts a little. In that case (not my firm's case), many of the farmers lost much of their crops because there was no manpower to harvest. BP promised high wages for 2 years to anyone who would come down to clean up the coast. These people went down in droves and the crops spoiled and the Rice mill suffered. After a couple of months when the media moved on BP laid off almost all clean up workers who had moved down for their "2 year" job.
BP has had free reign to spread their propaganda that all is well on the coast and in the Gulf. They are the biggest advertiser down here so none of the media outlets will write, air and victims stories or anything negative about BP. Most of my clients are still waiting for their 1st offer 3 1/2 years after the spill. FUBP!!!