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Deepwater Horizon Lawsuit Overview:
- Who: A magistrate judge recommended against including 28 plaintiffs in multidistrict litigation (MDL) formed in the aftermath of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
- Why: The plaintiff in one of the lawsuits that form the MDL alleged he developed health problems after working to clean up that Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill and sought to represent other clean up employees.
- Where: The Deepwater Horizon MDL is pending in Florida federal court.
More than two dozen Deepwater Horizon cleanup workers should be tossed from multidistrict litigation (MDL) pending against British Petroleum (BP), according to a recent recommendation by a Florida judge.
US Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones said he agrees that 28 plaintiffs should be dismissed from the MDL formed stemming from BPs 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill because they previously opted to seek recovery through workers’ compensation.
The judge also recommended that the district court grant BP’s motion for summary judgment in these cases to comply with a settlement agreement it reached over cleanup workers’ claims. U.S. District Judge M. Casey Rodgers will make a final ruling on the motion.
“The settlement agreement requires an injured party to elect one remedy to the exclusion of the other,” Jones said in the recommendation. “Accordingly, plaintiffs cannot seek compensation from BP through these lawsuits.”
BP was found responsible for the disaster by a federal judge in 2014, which killed 11 and spewed more than 130 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
Deepwater Horizon Cleanup Worker Claims Eye Problems Following Disaster
Christopher Causey filed a lawsuit over eye problems allegedly caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil rig spill 11 years ago. His case will represent the 504 lawsuits still outstanding from the ordeal, according to an order filed Jan. 11.
Causey says he dug out tarballs from the sand and bagged them, exposing him to oil, dispersants and other toxins, according to his initial complaint filed in 2018. He says the exposure made him and other coworkers sick and reports developing chronic conjunctivitis and dry eye syndrome as a result.
BP agreed to pay at least $7.8 million to the roughly 100,000 claims it was facing at the time, according to The Associated Press.
Hundreds of additional lawsuits claiming personal injury and property damage followed, eventually leading to a class action lawsuit that led to a settlement deal covering medically-related claims in 2012.
A “back-end litigation option” (BELO) attached to that settlement allowed claims to be filed if symptoms from oil exposure manifested after.
Causey is one of those people. His case was chosen randomly from a pool of claims offered by the plaintiffs and BP.
“The court finds that proceeding with one test case will be instructive and, in the long run, will facilitate a more efficient and fair grouping of cases,” Florida District Judge Casey Rodgers said.
Judge Rejects 28 Plaintiffs’ Arguments
The 28 plaintiffs facing dismissal contend that their chronic medical conditions were diagnosed after they settled their workers’ compensation claims. However, Jones says the onset of the plaintiffs’ alleged injuries as it relates to the date of settlement is irrelevant.
“What matters is that plaintiffs accepted workers’ compensation for their oil spill-related injuries. Having elected that remedy, plaintiffs cannot now seek a remedy from BP,” he said in the recommendation.
Secondly, the plaintiffs say BP failed to put forward evidence that the settled workers’ compensation claims are for the same injuries alleged in the plaintiffs’ complaints.
To this, Jones said the plaintiffs’ Later-Manifest Physical Conditions (LMPCs) are firmly within the scope of the workers’ compensation they both pursued and received.
Lastly, the plaintiffs argue that an issue of fact exists as to whether the worker compensation claims were “exposure claims.”
However, Jones says, “The issue is whether plaintiffs pursued a remedy for their oil spill-related injuries through workers’ compensation laws, which they did.”
Were you affected by the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill? What do you think about the latest developments in the lawsuits against BP? Let us know in the comments below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Allen W. Lindsay Jr. of Lindsay & Andrews PA and Timothy J. Falcon, Jeremiah A. Sprague and Jarrett S. Falcon of the Falcon Law Firm.
The Deepwater Horizon BELO Lawsuit is In Re: Deepwater Horizon BELO Cases, Case No. 3:19-cv-00963, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division.
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