Mass Tort Litigation Blog

Allegations of Fraud in the BP Settlement

See BP's letter to Louis Freeh here.  ADL

The NYTimes on How to Compensate Victims of Terrorism

You can find the Room for Debate segment here, with input from a number of law professors including Michele Landis Dauber (Stanford), Betsy Grey (Arizona State), and Stephen Shugerman (UC Berkeley)

ADL

What Happened to the BP Settlement?

The Fifth Circuit issued a decision on January 10th affirming the class action settlement in the In re Deepwater Horizon litigation.  You can find the opinion here. 

This opinion is the result of objections to the settlement, but BP intervened to argue that there was an Article III standing problem with the way the settlement agreement had been interpreted.  That interpretation was very generous to claimants in its interpretation of how they must prove economic loss to collect.  The problem BP faces now is that it didn't cap the settlement amount in the agreement (yes, you read that right, and furthermore this was a selling point of the settlement).  As a result, BP has a classic "if you build it, they will come" problem and is trying to upend the settlement as a result. At the moment, the Fifth Circuit in a separate opinion by a separate panel has stayed the settlement adminsitration as it considers the interpretation of the agreement.  In that separate opinion, the panel (which couln't quite agree) indicated that the agreement interpretation may be too generous and remanded for reconsideration. You can find that opinion here. 

In the opinion issued on Friday, this panel indicated the interpretation may be just fine, and sent a strong hint to the District Judge about what he should do. 

So here's the question, why did BP agree to these terms?  It was an open ended settlement with a broad geographic reach and a flexible standard for compensation - that was clear from the start.   I'm sure BP's excellent counsel knew this was a risk.   So what happened?  Were the economists predictions dead wrong?  Is this just a case of buyer's remorse? 

The WSJ has some coverage, here.

ADL 

Two major decisions from the Supreme Court today

The Supreme Court issues two decisions this morning, one on personal jurisdiction and the other on mass actions under CAFA.

In Mississippi ex rel Hood v. AU Optronics, the Court issued a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor holding that an action brought by the Mississippi AG could not be removed to federal court under CAFA's mass action exception because the AG is a single plaintiff.  The opinion is based on a formal reading of the statute.  You can find the opinion here. 

In Daimler AG v. Bauman, the Court held that the parent company was not subject to general personal jurisdiction in California for a human rights lawsuit relating to the company's conduct in Argentina's dirty war.  The opinion, written by Justice Ginsburg, was nearly unanimous with a concurrence from Justice Sotomayor.

The Court held over (again) petitions relating to consumer class actions alleging that washing machines cause mold.  They are now scheduled for conference on January 17th. 

ADL