https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/04/21/bp-oil-spill-workers-sick-court/538851002/
[BP appears to be playing the Exxon strategy here, perfected in the
still on-going legal battles following the Exxon Valdez clean-up
workers: drag out all the legal proceedings until all the plaintiffs
are dead. Give the basis of the claim is killing them off prematurely,
it appears a remarkably effective strategy. It is also calculated to
bankrupt the claimants.
You may also find this new movie interesting. Trailer (about 5 minutes)
at: http://www.therisingfilm.tv/#trailer
video, links and images in on-line article]
Thousands of cleanup workers that claim BP oil spill made them sick
haven't had day in court
USA Today NetworkDavid Hammer, WWL-TV, New Orleans
Published 6:55 a.m. ET April 21, 2018 | Updated 12:13 p.m. ET April 21, 2018
NEW ORLEANS — In the sea of fines, fees and compensation BP has paid to
individuals, businesses, governments and lawyers for its 2010 oil spill,
one group of claimants stands out for missing out on the billions.
On the eighth anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that
set off the worst oil spill in U.S. history, thousands of workers BP
hired to clean up its mess say exposure to oil and chemicals made them
sick. About 22,700 of them have been paid under a 2012 class-action
settlement, but the average claim paid about $2,940.
And thousands of other medical claimants are still awaiting their day in
court.
That includes Tiffany Odoms, the widow of cleanup worker Alonzo Odoms,
who was exposed to oil and cleaning chemicals on a shrimp boat near
Dulac and died four years later of multiple myeloma. Tiffany said
doctors said the cancer came from an exposure to chemicals.
Alonzo Odoms filed a claim when he got sick, and Tiffany Odoms is now
pursuing it as a wrongful death claim as she raises their daughter A’loni.
“It’s not right, to hear my baby cry,” she said. “Still cry, every night
and wonder why she can’t go to heaven and visit her dad.”
Another claimant is shrimper George Barisich. He received compensation
for his seafood business losses under a separate settlement, and he
filed a claim for a chronic illness from exposure to the oil and
chemical dispersants used to break up oil particles in the Gulf.
“There’s no justice here for people who actually worked, went out there
to clean up their mess, and this is what we got for it: Not too good of
a thank you, I don’t believe,” Barisich said.
Claimants and their allies, led by Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore,
delivered a petition with 25,000 signatures to the federal court in New
Orleans on Friday, asking U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to move
long-stagnant medical claims forward.
“On this 20th day of April, we reflect with sadness on those who lost
their lives and we brush shoulders with those trying to stay alive as a
result of the dispersants and the chemicals and the unprotected workers
who worked to clean up our shores,” Honore said outside the federal
courthouse.
Of the 22,700 medical claimants paid under the settlement so far, only
40 of them qualified for $60,700 payments available to those who could
prove the spill caused them to have chronic illnesses.
The medical claims settlement administrator, Matt Garretson of Garretson
Resolution Group in Cincinnati, estimated his fees from BP at $115
million to $120 million. That’s nearly twice as much as the $67.8
million he’s paid out to claimants over the last six years.
If the medical settlement had played out the way plaintiffs expected in
2012, it might have paid more than $1 billion to tens of thousands of
claimants.
But that was short-circuited in 2014, when U.S. District Judge Carl
Barbier made a decision — reluctantly, according to his comments from
the bench — that rendered the settlement essentially moot for an
estimated 20,000 claimants.
It all boiled down to the interpretation of two words: “manifested” and
“diagnosed.”
The original medical claims settlement set aside a separate litigation
process for what were called “Later-Manifested Physical Conditions.”
Lead class plaintiffs’ attorney Steve Herman said that was supposed to
refer to cancer and other conditions that don’t show up for years after
the exposure.
Instead, the settlement defined “later-manifested physical conditions”
as any conditions “diagnosed” after April 16, 2012, regardless of when
the condition actually manifested, or appeared. That meant people who
got sick right away while cleaning up the oil during 2010 and 2011, but
didn’t get an official doctor’s diagnosis until mid-2012 or later, were
relegated to fighting separate cases, first in mediation with BP and
then in court.
The latest report from Garretson shows BP has not agreed to pay a single
one of those claims in mediation. Herman said the first of the court
cases are now starting to be heard.
Garretson said he is simply implementing the settlement as it was
written, but Herman said that’s not what the plaintiffs’ negotiating
team intended. That leaves claimants angry at both of them and pointing
out that they are getting huge paydays out of the settlement.
Herman’s law firm and that of his co-lead counsel, Jim Roy, were each
awarded $87 million in fees from BP. That’s on top of any fees they
collected from their individual clients, which could be up to 25 percent
of their claims payouts. In all, about two dozen plaintiffs’ law firms
split $679 million in fees for negotiating settlements with BP totaling
$13 billion and with BP’s drilling contractors for another $1.25 billion.
Garretson, meanwhile, has also approved $105 million in grants to Gulf
Coast community-based health organizations, which are expected to help
some of the claimants get better medical care. Claimants can also
participate in free ongoing clinical screenings as a part of the
settlement Garretson runs.