Mississippi Gulf Oil Spill Litigation Update
There have not been any major developments in oil spill litigation in Mississippi in the last few weeks. More cases have been filed, but that is expected and more will be filed going forward.
I am not aware of a defendant filing an answer to the complaints yet. BP has been filing motions to stay the cases pending transfer to an MDL. Transocean is seeking to limit its liability in a Houston court and is filing documents related to that case in Mississippi cases.
Transocean seeks to limit its liability from the spill to less than $27 million. If Transocean is successful, there could be a huge political and public backlash that results in the strategy backfiring. Of course, Transocean has probably considered this and decided to go for the limitation anyway.
Transocean's stock price has been in a free fall since the explosion along with BP's.
Yeah, Becnel is pushing hard for consolidation in the Eastern District of Louisiana, for obvious reasons.
What I don't see much of, though, is the procedural interplay of the Oil Pollution Act. There's been plenty of stories re the twenty-year old $75 million dollar cap and whether it will be increased to $10 billion. But, the language of the OPA is pretty clear that claims "shall be presented first to the responsible party," which is BP. I'm wondering, would these class actions be subject to an Exception of Prematurity / Motion to Dismiss for Failure to Exhaust Admin. Remedies?
I guess that question will be answered once responsive pleadings are filed by the defendants.
The pubilc MUST force BP out of the gulf. WE MUST band together and not tolerate or allow this kind of thing to ever happen again by BP or any other oil company.
We must stop them from any further future ocean drilling in US waters and the oceans of the world.
WE MUST UNITE- FORCE BP OUT, FORCE BP OUT, FORCE BP OUT!!!
John Q,
Thanks for the enthusiasm. Might I recommend decaf?