B.P. Oil Spill Should Lead To Compensation But Not Necessarily Punishment Unless... ~by Legal Pub

Reader: What affect will the B.P. oil leakage cause on ligation?

Legal Pub: Making sense of the B.P. oil spill as well as its affect on litigation is difficult to do. We certainly know that suits have or will be filed concerning injury to people resulting from the initial explosion. But of greater interest may be the litigation from bystanders and business affected by the pollution.

Reader: Have you learned of any interesting cases?

Legal Pub: Well, one in particular stands out to me. Susan Spicer, a New Orleans author and chef has sued B.P. Susan is known for her cooking of seafood from the Gulf. Her suit appears to involve a class action against B.P. for depriving chefs of their normal seafood supplies. Reuters.

Lets rightfully give Susan some free publicity. She runs Bayona, an excellent French Quarter restaurant that serves local fish and shellfish. Spicer's lawyer apparently claims that the pollution from the oil spill will cause the restaurant to lose customers "because of lower tourism and convention business, contamination fears and significantly higher prices." Quite frankly, it is hard to argue to the contrary. It is hard to imagine how the chain of delivery from the initial fisherman, oyster grower or shrimper to the ultimate consumer has not been harmed. Thus it is easy to understand how a local business will be harmed.

BP does not generally comment on litigation, but Legal Pub can. The oil spill in the gulf is a huge disaster, the magnitude of which is hard to comprehend. It is perhaps one of the greatest environmental incidents in our country's history. The total damage will be astronomical. Federal and local response has been largely ineffective. Perhaps not from any fault, but merely because of the magnitude of the disaster. It is easy to point the finger at B.P. and even politicians. In hind sight, it appears that there is more that could have been done to reduce the likelihood of a disaster of such huge magnitude. But at this point, there is nothing that can be done to put the genie back in the bottle.

B.P owes a duty to those effected by the spill to stop it as soon as practical and to pay for the damages. This requires B.P. to compensate the victims who prove their damages. But taking out our collective anger in the form of punishment, as oppose to just compensation, will likely lead to corporate shell games where future drillers and operators are under capitalized. When this happens, future victims are less likely to be adequately compensated and bankruptcy will become the expected response to claims for liability. Furthermore, before juries rush to punish, keep in mind that we are all to blame. We love our gasoline operated motor vehicles and our plastic products. Did we not stop to think of the potential costs to our ecosystem of our lavish life styles? Did we really think a leak could not happen? What cleaner more environmentally friendly forms of energy have each of us personally pursued?

It's easy to play the blame game. But the truth is that this is not a Democrat or a Republic issue. This is an American problem which we all need to take some responsibility for ourselves. We can ask no less of ourselves than we do of our children or our corporations. Compensation? Yes. Punishment? Not before each juror looks at the person in the mirror and says what they did before this incident to reduce our nations dependency on oil.

Reader: Well there goes your chance of ever being appointed by this administration.

7-15-10 Update: Quite simply, it continues to get harder to sympathize with B.P. In the latest scandal, there are allegations that a trade for a terrorist was made in exchange for commercial considerations. BP has confirmed that it had lobbied the British government in late 2007 over a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya. This resulted in the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset Al-Megrahi. B.P. admits that it voiced concerns that the slow pace of negotiations risked impacting an offshore drilling deal with Moammar Gadhafi's North African country.

Abdel baset Al-Mohmet al-Megrahi was convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am airliner over Lockerbie. He was released from a Scottish prison jail last August because a doctor said he was dying of cancer." But in reality, B.P. had told the U.K. government that the slow progress that was being made in reaching a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya might jeopardize off shore drilling. In sum, unbelievable!

8-19-10 Update: Here is a Texas lawsuit where a woman is blaming B.P. for the death of her son. http://www.galvnews.com/story/169994