Supreme Court Won’t Review Deepwater Horizon Settlement

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On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review BP PLC’s appeal of the $9.2 billion Deepwater Horizon oil spill class action settlement, which the oil giant filed over concerns the deal allows people to collect payments even if they can’t show their injuries were caused by the oil spill.

BP petitioned the Supreme Court in August, claiming that a Louisiana federal court erred when it determined businesses were not required to show a causal relationship between their alleged injuries and the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. BP argued that it was unfair that the deal would allow claimants who did not suffer injuries from the oil spill to collect payments.

BP originally agreed to settle the Deepwater Horizon oil spill class action lawsuits in 2012. However, since the deal was inked, BP has argued that it has not been interpreted correctly by court-appointed settlement administrator Patrick Juneau. Last December, a payment freeze was implemented to give the parties a chance to clarify the method in which payments would be calculated for business economic loss claimants. BP was concerned about the possibility of claimants receiving payments for “fictitious” claims, causing the company to pay far more than it had originally agreed to pay.

In January, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Deepwater Horizon class action settlement despite BP’s concerns that it has been improperly administered. The appellate panel found that BP had agreed to the terms of the oil spill settlement and could not continue to block payments.

The 5th Circuit upheld Juneau’s interpretation of the oil spill class action settlement in March, finding that BP had ultimately agreed to the language in the deal that allowed business economic loss claimants in certain areas of the Gulf Coast to receive payments without proving their losses were caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The appellate panel found that there is “nothing fundamentally unreasonable about what BP accepted but now wishes it had not.”

BP has been hit with a series of setbacks in its fight to block payments for the Deepwater Horizon class action settlement. After the 5th Circuit refused to extend the payment freeze while BP appealed the settlement to the Supreme Court, the oil giant asked the Supreme Court to block payments until it had a chance to review the deal. The Supreme Court denied BP’s request.

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Class Members are represented by Stephen J. Herman of Herman Herman & Katz LLP, by Joe Rice of Motley Rice LLC and by James P. Roy of Domengeaux Wright Roy & Edwards, among others.

The Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Class Action Lawsuit is BP Exploration & Production Inc., et al. v. Lake Eugenie Land & Development Inc., et al., Case No. 14-123, in the U.S. Supreme Court.