Anne Bucher  |  May 30, 2014

Category: Consumer News

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BP Horizon Oil Spill LawsuitOn Tuesday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied BP PLC’s request to extend the payment freeze from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill class action settlement until the U.S. Supreme Court has a chance to consider its appeal. In response, the oil giant has again taken the fight over the Deepwater Horizon payments to the high court and has asked Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to allow the company to suspend payments to businesses seeking compensation from the class action settlement until the litigation is resolved.

“Unless the mandate is recalled and stayed, countless awards totaling potentially hundreds of millions of dollars will be irretrievably scattered to claimants that suffered no injury traceable to BP’s conduct,” BP wrote in its motion to the Supreme Court.

The BP oil spill class action settlement, which stems from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, was initially reached in March 2012. Under the terms of the Deepwater Horizon settlement, BP agreed to compensate those who suffered economic or property damage or had medical expenses related to the oil spill. However, the oil giant took issue with the Settlement Administrator’s interpretation of the class action settlement.

BP has argued that the Settlement Administrator’s method of calculating business economic loss claims sets the stage for numerous Gulf Coast residents to receive payments for “fictitious” claims, and will force the oil giant to pay billions of dollars in bogus claims. The 5th Circuit initially granted the payment freeze to allow the parties to revisit the issue in December 2013.

In March, a divided three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit upheld the Settlement Administrator’s interpretation after finding that BP had ultimately agreed to language in the class action settlement agreement that allowed claimants in certain areas of the Gulf Coast to receive business economic loss payments without showing their losses stemmed from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

After BP’s request to have the full appellate court panel rehear the case was denied, the oil giant asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the terms of the Deepwater Horizon class action settlement and requested the 5th Circuit to extend the payment freeze until the Supreme Court has a chance to review the case.

As of now, the fate of the Deepwater Horizon class action settlement rests in the hands of Justice Antonin Scalia, who is assigned to oversee 5th Circuit court cases. It is not yet known if the Supreme Court will choose to take on the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement appeal.

For more updates about the BP oil spill class action settlement, keep checking www.TopClassActions.com or sign up for our free newsletter for the latest updates. You can also mark this article as a “Favorite” using your free Top Class Actions account to receive notifications when this article is updated.

Class Members are represented by Stephen J. Herman of Herman Herman & Katz LLC, James P. Roy of Domengeaux Wright Roy & Edwards LLC, Brian H. Barr of Levin Papantonio Thomas Mitchell Rafferty & Proctor PA and Robin L. Greenwald of Weitz & Luxemberg PC, among others.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Lawsuit is In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig “Deepwater Horizon” in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, Case No. 2:10-md-02179, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. The appellate case is In re: Deepwater Horizon, Case Nos. 13-30095 and 13-30315, in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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One thought on BP Asks Supreme Court to Freeze Deepwater Horizon Settlement Payments

  1. anaya says:

    This is the price that you have to pay for not taking simple preventive measures to ensure the safety & intregity of our natural resources. Maybe now you BP will be more conscious of your enviroment. Personally I dont understand how you could still be in operation today, under the same name no less. But then again people love oil more than life itself. Driving along in their automobiles while people all over the world are being murdered for it. Black gold indeed.

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