BP Accused of "Corporate Recklessness" For Its Role in Gulf Spill: Department of Justice Also Alleges Gross Negligence Against Oil Giant — DOJ Advises Gulf Region to "Ignore" BP's Claims of Robust Recovery, Stating That BP's Arguments are "Plainly Mislead

September 6, 2012

BP Accused of "Corporate Recklessness" For Its Role in Gulf Spill: Department of Justice Also Alleges Gross Negligence Against Oil Giant — DOJ Advises Gulf Region to "Ignore" BP's Claims of Robust Recovery, Stating That BP's Arguments are "Plainly Misleading"

The Department of Justice has leveled accusations of gross negligence and a "culture of corporate recklessness" against oil giant BP's role in the 2010 Gulf spill — a charge that could significantly increase the damages BP could be forced to pay in the case.

In a federal court filing Friday, the DOJ said that the Eastern District Court of Louisiana should ignore BP's argument that the Gulf region is "undergoing a robust recovery" and assess damages based on its responsibility for the explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the resulting oil spill. The DOJ said that some of the arguments made by BP in earlier filings in the case were "plainly misleading," CNNMoney.com reports.

The DOJ also said Transocean, the owner and operator of the Deepwater Horizon rig, is guilty of gross negligence as well. "BP did not act alone, by any means, and its gross negligence and willful misconduct are inextricably joined with the acts and omissions of Transocean," the government said in the filing, the article reports.

BP has reached a $7.8 billion settlement with lawyers representing private sector victims of the spill. The DOJ's filing is in response to BP seeking final approval of that settlement from the Eastern District Court of Louisiana. While the DOJ said it is not objecting to the terms of that deal, it does want the court to keep open the question of additional liability for BP and Transocean.

The $7.8 billion settlement was never going to be the full cost to BP from the cases pending against it. The Financial Times reported earlier this year that BP was seeking a settlement totaling $15 billion. But according to the FT report, the gross negligence charge, if upheld by the court, opens the door for as much as $21 billion in additional damages on top of compensatory and punitive damages.

BP issued a statement last week that the government's claims "simply illustrate that disputes about the underlying facts remain. BP believes it was not grossly negligent and looks forward to presenting evidence on this issue at trial in January."

Comments

Someone needs to throw a net over the Department of Justice some

Submitted by James E. Lukaszewski (not verified) on September 12, 2012 - 9:12am.

Someone needs to throw a net over the Department of Justice some days. Name a company in our economic history that has been as responsive and disclosive to a crisis or disaster situation they helped cause as BP, or a company that has spent and continues to spend an equivalent mountain of cash to make amends and help victims get whole again, or that continues to display publically on their website all of the historic information about the pain and suffering and damage they caused including ongoing issues and problems, their mistakes, and their own personal culpability?

See for yourself at:

http://www.bp.com/sectionbodycopy.do?categoryId=41&contentId=7067505&nic...

DOJ says they want to leave the door open for additional legal sanctions and or prosecution after BP agreed to a record settlement of $7.9 billion with the victims of the disaster. If the DOJ were to be successful in destroying this company, which is usually their goal in these situations (they call it “sending a message”), who would carry on the hundreds of remediation activities? You guessed it, good old you and me and our fellow US taxpayers. But a lot of overzealous prosecuting attorneys could walk around high fiving each other, egged on by a plaintiffs’ bar that has been shut out of the big pot of cash this litigation target presents.

That is really what this recent DOJ action is all about, keeping the brothers and sisters of the Bar in the money game.

Even the corrosive language DOJ uses comes out of a standard harsh lexicon designed to abuse and intimidate rather than get to the actual truth of the matter.

Joining the DOJ is our public relations profession in the forefront of criticizing this company.

I have seen PhD papers and Master’s papers written about all the mistakes BP's made and continues to make. I have yet to see a competent impact analysis of BP's relentless efforts to remedy this situation, resolve victim issues, assist the governments of the affected states, and establish a new paradigm for prepaying victim damages (this has completely befuddled the plaintiffs bar). Nor have I read or seen mentioned the requirements of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 for BP (or any oil platform operator) to work under the direction of the US Coast Guard in a unified command structure.. That’s right, from the outset of the crisis, BP was reporting to the U.S. Coast Guard until the Service no longer requires it.

Any wonder that we are so often shut out of the C-Suite, especially when there are problems? From management’s perspective we fail to understand what management is doing nor do we do our homework before we leap to conclusions and condemnations.

This is the story that needs retelling from this entirely different point of view – that of a company that has learned from past mistakes and is honestly trying to remediate and help others recover from this tragedy. Instead we hear largely from pundits and prosecutors, bloviators and bellyachers, marketing their self-interests. Just ask the people BP’s helped in the Gulf if the billions of dollars spent and the unwavering effort BP continues to make are genuine.