Monday, December 8, 2014

U.S. SUPREME COURT TELLS BP TO PAY UP FOR 2010 GULF DEADLY EXPLOSION AND SUBSEQUENT MASSIVE OIL SPILL, REJECTS APPEAL OF SPILL SETTLEMENT






U.S. supreme court tells BP to pay up for 2010 Gulf DEADLY EXPLOSION AND SUBSEQUENT MASSIVE oil spill, rejects appeal of spill settlement



12/08/2014 12:16:22
NEW ORLEANS -- The Supreme Court is leaving in place BP's multibillion-dollar settlement with lawyers for businesses and residents over the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
The justices did not comment Monday in rejecting the London-based oil giant's arguments that lower courts misinterpreted settlement terms and put BP on the hook to pay inflated and bogus claims by businesses. 

The court's decision makes the economic and property damage settlement final, starting a six-month deadline for filing claims, said plaintiffs' attorney Joe Rice of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. 

BP PLC wanted the court to consider whether people and businesses seeking payments under the settlement included some who haven't actually suffered any injury related to the spill. 

A district court and an appeals court ruled that, under the settlement BP agreed to, businesses do not have to prove they were directly harmed by the spill to collect money -- only that they made less money in the three to eight months after the spill than in a comparable pre-spill period. 

BP's Macondo well blew up on April 20, 2010, killing 11 men. An estimated 103 million to 176 million gallons of oil spewed into the Gulf of Mexico before the mile-deep well was capped July 15, 2010. Lawyers for BP and the government agree that 34 million gallons was captured before it could pollute coastal marshes and fishing grounds. 

"Today's ruling is a huge victory for the Gulf, and should finally put to rest BP's two-year attack on its own settlement," lead plaintiffs' attorneys Stephen J. Herman and James P. Roy said in an emailed statement. 


The settlement doesn't have a cap, but BP initially estimated that it would pay roughly $7.8 billion to resolve the claims. The company said it can no longer give a reliable estimate for total cost. The company, which made separate settlements for medical claims and seafood-related business claims, has paid more than $13 billion in claims by individuals, businesses and government entities and another $14 billion-plus on response and cleanup, according to its oil spill website. 

BP remains concerned "that the program has made awards to claimants that suffered no injury from the spill -- and that the lawyers for these claimants have unjustly profited as a result," BP spokesman Goeff Morrell said in an emailed statement.
He added, "We will therefore continue to advocate for the investigation of suspicious or implausible claims and to fight fraud where it is uncovered." 

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals did get the method for calculating losses changed after BP argued that claims administrator Patrick Juneau wasn't correctly matching business's revenues and expenses. The company has been trying to oust Juneau. U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier rejected its claims but BP went to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. 

A third-party audit of the settlement program, made public in November, found that it correctly processed 99.5 percent of claims. Chicago-based McGladrey LLP described the program as "well-designed and appropriate." 

The deadline for medical claims is Feb. 12, 2015, according to the federal district court claims website. That for seafood-related businesses is past. 


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Supreme Court tells BP to pay up, rejects appeal of spill settlement
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected BP’s challenge to a settlement agreement over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, which the oil giant said allowed certain businesses to get payouts despite being unable to trace their losses to the disaster.

The court’s refusal to hear BP’s appeal means the London-based company will have to make the payments as it continues to deal with the aftermath of the 20 April 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and rupture of BP’s Macondo oil well.
BP signed a settlement agreement in 2012 to compensate spill claimants, but has since argued that the agreement has been interpreted improperly, forcing it to pay businesses that could not show damages.

The court’s unsigned order is the latest setback to BP, which is trying to limit payments over the disaster, which killed 11 people and triggered the largest US offshore oil spill.
So far, BP has paid $2.3bn in so-called business economic loss claims out of $4.25bn in total compensation to individuals and businesses, according to statistics maintained by Patrick Juneau, the administrator appointed by the courts to handle claims. 

BP has estimated it will pay $9.7bn to plaintiffs represented by the so-called plaintiffs’ steering committee, but said last month that this sum could grow significantly. 

The settlement process is separate from other court proceedings relating to the spill, including environmental and criminal penalties. BP has put aside $43bn to resolve all claims. 


Supreme Court tells BP to pay up, despite appeal
June 9, 2014
BP asserts that some businesses are claiming payments unrelated to the oil spill.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that BP BP -2.78% , the British oil giant responsible for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, must make payments from a fund established after the disaster, despite a pending appeal.
The justices left in place a lower court’s refusal to stop payments while BP appeals a decision by a lower court that businesses don’t have to prove they were directly impacted by the oil spill to claim compensation.
The order, which was just one sentence long, said, “The application to recall and stay the mandate of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit presented to Justice Scalia and by him referred to the Court is denied.” The case, meanwhile, is called Exploration v. Lake Eugenie Land, 13A1177.
BP, however, asserts that some businesses are claiming payments unrelated to the oil spill.
According to Geoff Morrell, a BP spokesman, “BP looks forward to pursuing review by the US Supreme Court of the Fifth Circuit’s decisions relating to the compensation of claims with no apparent connection to the spill.” He added: “The company continues to believe that the lifting of the injunction suspending the payment of business economic loss claims will allow hundreds of millions of dollars to be irretrievably scattered to claimants whose losses were not plausibly caused by the Deepwater Horizon accident.”
The head lawyers for the spill victims said in a statement to Bloomberg: “We’re pleased that this denial of BP’s request for a stay will allow businesses to continue to receive the compensation they’re rightly entitled to according to the objective, transparent formulas agreed to by BP.”
The Supreme Court will decide later in 2014 when to take up BP’s appeal over the disputed payments.
In 2012, the initial cost of payments was expected to be about $7.8 billion. BP says that a claims administrator’s misinterpretation is responsible for bumping the price to the current $9.2 billion figure.