Where will the Insurance Coverage Cases be tried?
The Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation has reportedly ruled that there will be two Courts of consolidated Oil Spill Litigation. One will consolidate 300 pending lawsuits, with more to come, to be presided over by United States District Judge Carl Barbier. These lawsuits involve Damages Claims for the alleged Wrongful Deaths of the oil rig workers in the April, 2010 explosion, lost revenue, and environmental damage. Pending Plaintiffs already include "commercial fishing interests, beach-front property owners and environmentalists" as a result of oil fouling beaches and marshes from Louisiana to Alabama, Texas, Mississippi and Florida. Reportedly, "[h]omes in Gulf Coast states may lose as much as $56,000 apiece in value as buyers avoid areas marred by the spill".
In addition, the first Consolidation Forum will also hear the pending Claims of Transocean Ltd. that its Liability should be limited as the Owner of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.
The other Consolidation Forum will be Federal Court in Houston, Texas, where BP's United States operations are centered. The U.S. District Judge assigned to hear those consolidated Claims is Judge Keith P. Ellison. That Court will hear Claims filed by BP shareholders and investors as a result of BP stock losses and plunging share price, "civil securities fraud claims, shareholder derivative actions, and claims by employees over losses in company retirement savings plans".
The Judicial Panel on Multi-District Litigation's Consolidation Order is analyzed in, and the above quotes are taken from, Jef Feeley and Margaret Cronin Fisk, "BP Gulf-Spill Lawsuits Consolidated in New Orleans" (Bloomberg.com, Tuesday, August 10, 2010).
Dennis Wall is Co-Author of the leading book on Insurance Coverage for Catastrophe Claims, "CATClaims: Insurance Coverage for Natural and Man-Made Disasters" (West Publishing Company 2008; 2010 Supplement in process). Mr. Wall will be a featured speaker on several panels which will address the BP Oil Spill Catastrophe. On September 15, 2010, he will be a featured speaker on a panel addressing "BP Oil Spill Damages Claims: The Coverage Predicates" at the September 15, 2010 Seminar of the Insurance Law Committee sponsored by the Orange County Bar Association in Orlando, Florida. Mr. Wall will speak on a panel at the American Conference Institute's Bad Faith Litigation Conference in Orlando, Florida on November 30, 2010 on "Dealing With Catastrophic Disasters: How to Properly Investigate and Handle Overwhelming Claims".
Please Read The Disclaimer.
Comments