Just as Gulf Coast residents pleaded with British oil giant BP to stop the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico following a 2010 oil rig explosion, the oil company has now gone to court asking for help stopping the flow of cash from its coffers.
In June, the company asked a federal appeals court to intervene in an earlier settlement, to “stop the hemorrhaging of cash, ” the Mobile Press-Register reported. BP contended that many of the companies seeking to collect damages were actually not hurt by the spill.
“Irreparable injuries are taking place, ” the Mobile newspaper quotes BP attorney Ted Olson, “and monies are being dispensed to parties from whom it will unlikely be recoverable.”
Saying that BP is trying to “intimidate businesses and their attorneys who have properly filed and been paid according to the terms BP agreed to, ” attorney Rhon Jones, of Montgomery plaintiff firm Beasley Allen, blasted BP, saying it is objecting now just because the settlement is costing them more than they expected.
“They have what we in Alabama call ‘buyer’s remorse, ’ and they want out of a deal that they themselves signed and agreed to, ” Jones wrote in a letter to Alabama media.
“BP generates almost $400 billion a year. The company is crying ‘foul, ’ when BP is projected to pay about three months of earnings to compensate the families and businesses for the Deepwater Horizon disaster.”
Text by Nedra Bloom
