BP Exploration v. Lake Eugenie Land & Development.
Just this morning, the Supreme Court rejected British Petroleum’s (BP) attempt to revisit its original settlement regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. If you don’t remember the oil spill, here is what the Smithsonian has to say about it. Essentially, the spill killed 11 people, leaked 4.9 million barrels of oil into the ocean, caused horrible damage to the surrounding ecosystem, and is generally recognized as the “worst oil spill in U.S. history.”
BP set aside 20 billion dollars to aid in the recovery process for spill. To access this money, the Gulf Coast Claims Facility has set up a claims process to disperse the money to people and businesses who were affected by the spill. In 2012, BP reached a settlement to pay out businesses that it believed would cost $7.8 billion but will actually cost $9.2 billion. Since this settlement, BP has launched a legal attack on a court appointed claims administrator, who, BP argues, is misconstruing the terms of the settlement. This claim was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in March earlier this year. Here is an article with details. Fifth Circuit Judge Leslie Southwick stated, “There is nothing fundamentally unreasonable about what BP accepted but now wishes it had not.”
Continuing the legal fight, BP took the case to the Supreme Court. The issued an unsigned order refusing to hear the appeal. Here is the SCOTUSblog page for the case.
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