US Supreme Court refuses halt to BP spill payments

[webfact]

US Supreme Court refuses halt to BP spill payments
Collin Eaton

WASHINGTON: -- The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected BP's emergency petition to halt oil spill payments while the court considers whether to take up a broader dispute over BP's allegation that some economic loss claims were fabricated.

The London-based oil company had asked Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who has jurisdiction over certain petitions coming from the 5th US Circuit Appeals Court in New Orleans, to reverse that court's order resuming payments to thousands of Gulf Coast businesses.

A district court blocked the payments in an injunction last December.

The businesses are parties to a class action settlement in which BP agreed to pay what it has estimated will be $US9.2 billion ($9.84 billion) to residents alleging they sustained financial damage in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Company spokesman Geoff Morrell said BP is still asking the high court to review the 5th Circuit's recent decision not to reconsider earlier rulings on how settlement payments are made to businesses - specifically what BP alleges are ''compensation of claims with no apparent connection to the spill".

Full story: http://www.theage.com.au/world/us-supreme-court-refuses-halt-to-bp-spill-payments-20140610-zs2pj.html


-- The Age 2014-06-10

[jpinx]

Sounds like the pigs have their snouts in the trough and are not going to be driven away easily

[Soutpeel]

One wonders how much Halliburton have paid out in claims ?

[dundee48]

One wonders how much Halliburton have paid out in claims ?

Indeed,also Transocean who were the actual owners of the rig and owners of the BOP which failed.

[rickirs]

For the Court to have BP cease ALL payments to claimants, largely small businesses, would put injury upon injury on the claimants. No doubt there will be false claims but the burden is on BP to take the time to assure only legitimate claimants are paid; where it believes claim are fraudulant BP can go to the Courts for relief. But BP doesn't care to spend the time and resources on that process (anymore than its cared about the safety of the drilling rig workers) and instead chose an attempt to stop the whole claimant process. BP was in part the blame for this criminally created disaster and I have no sympathy if it makes payments to some fraudulent claims. If it had acted responsibly and professionally it would'nt be in the position of having to pay any claims.The Court was correct to deny BP's request.

[Suradit69]

Yes it seems BP is reaping what it sowed when it confused the Gulf states in the US with some former colony where they could exploit the locals with impunity. I'm sure there have been some false claims, but BP portraying itself as victim is not going to be an easy sell after their arrogant, high-handed behavior when this first happened.

This commentary was pretty hyperbolic, but it illustrates how BP managed to worsen their situation with their dismissive attitude towards those effected. Of course the morons who mishandled this whole thing still walked away with obsene salaries.

Who died and made BP king of the Gulf of Mexico? In recent weeks, BP has almost seemed more interested in keeping the American people away from the oil spill than in actually cleaning it up.

Journalists are being pushed around and denied access, disaster workers are being intimidated and abused and now BP has even go so far as to hire an army of private mercenaries to enforce their will along the Gulf coast. Are we suddenly living in occupied Iraq?

How in the world did a foreign oil company get the right to start pointing guns at the American people? The last time I checked, BP did not own the Gulf of Mexico and did not have the right to tell the American people where they can and cannot go. The truth is that BP could have avoided all of this by running an open, honest and transparent operation from the start.

They could have welcomed help from all sources, they could have tried to be open with the media, and they could have tried to be fair with the volunteers and rescue workers. But instead BP has been conducting this whole thing as if we are living in a totalitarian dictatorship and they are the dictators.

http://www.businessinsider.com/who-died-and-made-bp-the-king-of-the-gulf-of-mexico-2010-6

The announcement of the "mutual agreement" between Mr Hayward and BP came as little surprise after a series of gaffes left Mr Hayward branded "the most hated and clueless man in America." But there was no hiding his heartbreak, despite a severance package worth up to £12m and a non-executive place on the board of BP's Russian joint venture TNK-BP.

Because of the contractual shield that Transocean had with BP, they got off relatively lightly.

Transocean Ltd. (RIG) will pay more than $1.4 billion, including a $400 million criminal penalty, to settle federal claims arising from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, according to a court filing.Transocean will plead guilty to one misdemeanor count of violating the Clean Water Act and agree to five years probation, the U.S. said in a filing in federal court in New Orleans today. Transocean will appear for arraignment on the charge Jan. 9, U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby said in a one-page order today.

[Soutpeel]

For the Court to have BP cease ALL payments to claimants, largely small businesses, would put injury upon injury on the claimants. No doubt there will be false claims but the burden is on BP to take the time to assure only legitimate claimants are paid; where it believes claim are fraudulant BP can go to the Courts for relief. But BP doesn't care to spend the time and resources on that process (anymore than its cared about the safety of the drilling rig workers) and instead chose an attempt to stop the whole claimant process. BP was in part the blame for this criminally created disaster and I have no sympathy if it makes payments to some fraudulent claims. If it had acted responsibly and professionally it would'nt be in the position of having to pay any claims.The Court was correct to deny BP's request.

At the end of the day, it will not really matter, as BP is suing both Halliburton, who have admitted guilt in destroying reports etc, and transocean for criminal negligence

Your correct in the first instance BP as the operator is accountable, but if Halliburton and Trans ocean are found guilty, they will be picking up some of this tab as well

[stoli]

The problem is that there are people in New York and San Francisco claiming their earnings came to a halt by the oil spill in Louisiana. This is very common in class action suits, and these people need to be weeded out and sent to jail if found to be not be involved in any way. They make it harder for those really affected.

[8OA8]

The problem is that there are people in New York and San Francisco claiming their earnings came to a halt by the oil spill in Louisiana. This is very common in class action suits, and these people need to be weeded out and sent to jail if found to be not be involved in any way. They make it harder for those really affected.

Wow! Suppose a bar in Pattaya that was usually host to the group of gulf fishermen that didn't visit there, because they had a bad year financially and in turn the bar in Pattaya also had a bad year, will also be able to claim this loss from BP and lets not forget the van driver that was usually hired to collect them from the airport and take them around Thailand. He can also claim loss of earnings?

Please tell me this isn't the case.

[jpinx]

The problem is that there are people in New York and San Francisco claiming their earnings came to a halt by the oil spill in Louisiana. This is very common in class action suits, and these people need to be weeded out and sent to jail if found to be not be involved in any way. They make it harder for those really affected.

Wow! Suppose a bar in Pattaya that was usually host to the group of gulf fishermen that didn't visit there, because they had a bad year financially and in turn the bar in Pattaya also had a bad year, will also be able to claim this loss from BP and lets not forget the van driver that was usually hired to collect them from the airport and take them around Thailand. He can also claim loss of earnings?

Please tell me this isn't the case.

That is *EXACTLY* the case -- hence the problem...

BP must have drawn up a shockingly bad document to not limit the consequential "damages" which are now sucking the fund dry and will leave genuine cases short of their rightful compensation.

[poweratradio]

Sounds like the pigs have their snouts in the trough and are not going to be driven away easily

Ha ha ha. Funny! Only loss of ink and a piece of a spreadsheet when a # is moved from one column to another.

[boomerangutang]

Remember the Loma Prieta earthquake which seriously affected the SF Bay area? A friend of mine who had an old house on a hill, south of the epicenter; he filed an insurance claim for a single small concrete stem-wall footing under his little house. It already had a crack, probably from 60 years earlier. Anyhow, the insurance company mailed him a check for $35,000 the same day, and didn't even send anyone out to look at the alleged damage.

Americans are adept at filing false claims. I think Alabama holds the record for most burned down houses per capita for any US state (many of those houses just happened to get insured just before the fires), and Alabama also borders the Gulf, near the BP spill.

[TheWizardofRnR]

Well ,I hope some of you got a chance to see the story in HBO's NEWS show VICE .Where they are telling the story how the chemical BP is using to clean up their spill ,is just now starting to wash up and kill more shoreline vegetation.Plus people that live in the area and people who volunteered for cleaning up the mess ,are now getting ill from the chemical used to clean the oil up! Which it really was just sinking the oil and its being brought up by the storms in the gulf. BP is denying their BullSh*te once again !

Here's a link to go where you can possibly look at the story on-line about the next chapter in this BP Disaster and it looks like the end of it is no where near in sight !

http://thewizardofrockandroll.blogspot.com/2014/05/watch-vice-season-2-episode-9-crude.html

[Scott]

An off-topic post has been deleted. Continued trolling with blatantly untrue remarks will result in warnings and suspension.

Stay on the topic. The US Supreme Court generally is looking at the legalities of a previous court ruling. You might want to familiarize yourself with how the Supreme Court works and the specifics of this case.