Bp’s Request for stay to SCOTUS/Scalia revolves around a single issue, that is:
“…certify a class settlement that includes numerous members who have suffered no injury plausibly traceable to the defendant’s actions…”
BP restates this in numerous ways in their 34 page request submitted to Judge Scalia. Each time BP’s attorneys state that the class as constructed includes numerous or insinuates “huge” numbers of claimants who have no loss traceable to the BP oil spill of 2010. The problem is BP is wrong, legally and morally.
I would suggest that the PSC and the 5th Circuit have missed an opportunity to dismiss these specific points. (Please note that the lack of full file disclosure of past claims information that BP uses keeps all such discussions as theoretical, but importantly PLAUSIBLE connections.)
Please consider the following explanations for defeating BP’s assertions of no causal nexus for their “poster child” fraud case claims:
A car dealer who lost his franchise for a car line (Pontiac) – This dealer publicly stated that he tried unsuccessfully for the entire summer and fall of 2010 to get a new franchise to sell new vehicles. Prior to the spill they had 3 contacts with other auto makers bidding to give them their franchises to sell their new vehicles. The spill ended those talks and the business shut for the year. That is a real loss as opposed to the BP half truth.
An RV park that had a foreclosure filed against it prior to the spill – This is a not an RV park that had closed it’s business. It simply had a filing against it. Their business remained open at that location through 2010. A foreclosure does NOT mean a closure of business in the current FL real estate market for businesses. Most negotiate for a rental contract with the bank who forecloses as the banks prefer a property to be occupied and thus keeping the property from becoming abandoned. Many home owners are keeping residence in their homes in FL now under the same management agreements with banks (though ownership of the property is lost their business income was not.) This property faced the effects of the tourist exodus from the region in 2010 caused by the oil spill.
The cellular phone business that burned down prior to the spill – This company was reported to have been ready with contractors to use their insurance money to move to a different adjacent location and restart their business, but failed to be able to do so as there was simply no customer base to move forward.
The oft quoted “4 partner accounting firm” where one partner takes a medical leave during the oil spill…this was a hypothetical case not a real one. If it was real then there would be other factors that would have allowed the case to proceed against BP in a normal court of law. As it is hypothetical then one might ask first – Did this 4th partner decide to take his medical leave at this time because there simply wasn’t enough business for him to be needed in the office? Or did his absence from the office result in any turning away of clients? Really…would a business of that type actually lose business because one partner had a forced medical leave? Of course not! They would hire a temporary staff accountant. There were many unemployed accountants due to the prior economic crisis available to hire to take up his work load IF and only if such a work load existed.
Truly these cases put forward by BP are red herrings meant to deceive the public (as well as SCOTUS) and succeeded with at least one Judge by the name of Clements.
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