My Blowout Preventer is Malfunctioning -- Exxon Valdez refresher course

[nashville_brook]

Did you know that litigation for the Exxon Valdez oil spill lasted more than 20 years, and that , in the end, the Supreme Court used MARITIME COMMON LAW to vacate punitive damages? Well, it did and they did -- and they're fixing to do it again.

There was a chilling story on NPR's Morning Edition today regarding the use of maritime law in the BP/Transocean oil spill to cap lawsuits to the cost of the rig at $27 million, even though their insurance company has already issued PARTIAL compensation for the rig to the tune of $411 million.

In the story, NPR science correspondent Joseph Shapiro reported that Transocean wants "a more orderly court process," and so they're hoping to move the whole shebang out of our poor, clogged US courts, with their messy juries, and make one big case that can be tried in a nifty thing called Admiralty Court which was created by oligarchs for the protection of oligarchs.

I happen to appreciate tidiness, especially as regards the precious and fragile ecosystems in the Gulf. And, I'm calling bullshit on Transocean's ridiculous "orderliness" claim.

They're not hoping to use maritime law to makes things easier on the US court system. They want to screw the families of the 11 dead crew members, and they're hoping against hope to slink away from liability to property owners who've lost their business, commercial fishermen, seafood companies, restaurants charter boat companies...and anyone else devastated from this disaster.

And so, they're calling upon maritime common law because that's what the Supreme Court court used to get Exxon off the hook from the Valdez disaster. Over more than 20 years of litigation paid off in spades for Exxon. I can't wait to see how BP and Transocean get away with murder in their case.

Here's the Exxon Valdez litigation Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon_Valdez_oil_spill#Litigation_and_cleanup_costs

[DirkGently]

1. Holysh*t

That's crazy. But hardly unexpected. I want to know more about this.

[nashville_brook]

2. it's called Forum Shopping. Did you know that Admiralty Law figured in the American Revolution?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_law#Features_of_U.S._admiralty_law

Admiralty courts were a prominent feature in the prelude to the American Revolution. For example, the phrase in the Declaration of Independence “For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury” refers to the practice of Parliament giving the Admiralty Courts jurisdiction to enforce The Stamp Act in the American Colonies. Because the Stamp Act was unpopular, a colonial jury was unlikely to convict a colonist of its violation. However, because admiralty courts did not (as is true today) grant trial by jury, a colonist accused of violating the Stamp Act could be more easily convicted by the Crown.
...
In 1787 Thomas Jefferson, who was then ambassador to France, wrote to James Madison proposing that the U.S. Constitution, then under consideration by the States, be amended to include "trial by jury in all matters of fact triable by the laws of the land and not by the laws of Nations ." The result was the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

[Blue_In_AK]

3. There is a LOT that can be learned by studying the history

of the EXXON VALDEZ spill. Our hearts break up here because we know what's going to happen to all the people along the Gulf coast who will lose their livelihoods, their wildlife, their beautiful beaches. It's going to be worse than you even imagine. At least now in the age of the internet, picture phones, etc., people will really know what's going on down there. Sometimes back in 1989 it seemed like the rest of the country was just sort of "Ho-hum, a spill in Alaska. It's terrible, but it doesn't affect ME." This time there are millions of people who will be affected, and it's going to be awful. It's so very sad.

[nashville_brook]

4. i'm a FL kayaker -- recently spent some quality time on the Gulf paddling the Sanibel

area. I KNOW...god, i know...it's going to be much worse. the problem right now is not ON TOP of the water. the problem is a giant plume of oil inside the ocean. we're going to see some massive die-offs of large and small animals, and i would be surprise if the mangrove eco-systems don't make it. i'm sick in my heart in a major way.

[nashville_brook]

5. ...

[BeFree]

6. heh

They do have us over a barrel, eh?

I mean, what can we do?

[nashville_brook]

it's the eternal question...

my personal decisions to conserve and appreciate and recycle...don't amount to much. they're placeholders...rituals. it's time for action. we have to seize this moment.

[nashville_brook]

9. delete - dupe-de-doo

[pnorman]

7. K & R!

I spent my entire working years under Maritime Law, so this got my undivided attention,

[nashville_brook]

8. in 2008, when the Valdez "fines" were vacated, no one was paying attention...and we

were all like, "maritime common law," -- WTF?

it's no coincidence that the far right libertarians muse about harkening back to the days of Admiralty Law and import tariffs -- it's an oligarch's wet dream to only be bound by the law of the sea.