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21 Class Actions & Derivative Suits 1 (2010-2011)

handle is hein.aba/cadsu0021 and id is 1 raw text is: class action and derivative suit committee newsletter SECTION OF LITIGATION I AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION FALL 2010 VOL. 21 NO. 1 Environmental Class Actions: A Look at the Gulf Oil Spill By Peter Safirstein and Leigh Smith 'he April 20, 2010, explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig in the Guff of Mexico led to the largest oil spill in American history. The rig was owned by Transocean, Ltd., and teased by BP, PLC. According to CNN, the estimated flow from the catastrophic Guff oil spill in June 2010 was between 1.5 and 2.5 million gallons per day, and the leak continued well into July 2010. By the time the well was effectively declared dead in September 2010, the New York Times reported that an estimated 4.9 million barrels, or about 205 million gallons, of oil had entered the water. (September 19, 2010). Since April 20, 2010, hundreds of cases related to the catastrophe have been filed, more than 100 of which are class actions, and a large number allege harm to persons, property, and/or the environment. The majority of environmental impact lawsuits have been filed in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Principal defendants in these actions include BP and its subsidiaries, Transocean and its subsidiaries, and various corpora- tions that provided services on the ill-fated rig, including Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.; Cameron International Corporation; and Anadarko Petroleum Corp. On August 10, 2010, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued a transfer order consolidating 77 non- securities and non-ERISA federal lawsuits arising out of the Deepwater Horizon disaster to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, located in New Orleans, for coordinated or consoli- dated pretrial proceedings. On September 8, 2010, BP released a 193-page report on the causes of the Guf of Mexico tragedy. Not surprisingly, the report seeks to deflect substantial attention away from itself and onto its subcontractors. The plaintiffs in the cass-action suits can be classified into three main groups, with the first two bringing the majority of the suits: fishermen, owners and renters continued on page 15 BP Exxon Valdez, and Class-Wide Punitive Damages By Nimish R. Desai ~A itnesses of the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska's V Prince William Sound could not have imagined a greater disaster. After its intoxicated captain led the oil supertanker into the Sound's Bligh Reef, the massive ship released approximately 11 million gallons (350,000 barrels) of crude oil. Eventually, more than 1,300 miles of coastline were affected, much of it ecologically sensitive and critical to countless animal species. Commercial fisheries operating in the area were devastated by the contamination, and the impact rippled through the coastal economy, affecting everyone from food processing workers to municipal govern- ments, from cannery workers to area busi- nesses reliant on the fishing economy. A short 20 years later, history has repeated itseff on a grander scale. BP's Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico unfolded over 87 days, making the term spill seem wholly inadequate. In that time, nearly 160 million gallons (5 million barrels) of oil spewed into the Guff from the breached undersea well. Skimming efforts captured 800,000 barrels of oil, more than were ever continued on page 18 Published in CADS Report Volume 21 Number 1, Fall 2010. © 2010 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

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