NEW ORLEANS
A federal appeals court on Monday refused to reconsider its previous ruling that businesses don’t have to prove they were directly harmed by BP’s 2010 Gulf Of Mexico oil spill to collect settlement payments.
The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans could be a step toward resuming a claims process that was suspended after a district court ruling in December. However, BP spokesman Geoff Morrell said in an emailed statement Monday night that the company is considering its legal options.
BP had asked the full 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans to rehear the case after a three-judge panel’s March ruling. The court voted 8-5 against a rehearing.
The action preserves U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier’s ruling that BP had agreed in a 2012 settlement to pay claims without requiring proof that losses were directly caused by the spill resulting from the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, which killed 11 workers.
Judge Leslie Southwick wrote in Monday’s order that a 2012 policy statement, issued by the court-appointed claims administrator and developed with “input and assent from BP,” spelled out the criteria for business claims.
Southwick said all parties agreed to the criteria prior to final court approval of the 2012 settlement.
Judge Edith Brown Clement dissented. She said the ruling made the court “party to this fraud” and said judges in the majority were trying to “shift the blame for these absurdities to BP’s lawyers.”
The 2012 settlement doesn’t have a cap, but BP initially estimated that it would pay roughly $7.8 billion to resolve the claims. Later, as it started to challenge the business payouts, the company said it no longer could give a reliable estimate for how much the deal will cost.
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