Companies Seek Dismissal of Some Gulf Spill Claims Against Them

"In the first substantive hearing of the consolidated litigation over last year's Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, corporate defendants told U.S. District Court Judge Carl Barbier Thursday that claims for economic damage, claims by first responders who got sick from cleaning up the oil, and suits by environmental advocacy groups should be dismissed.

The hearing marked the first attempt to sort through how laws such as the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, the Clean Water Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, maritime law and state law interact.

If BP and the other companies that played a role in last year's explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and 86-day undersea oil gusher are successful in their motions to dismiss, it would gut the litigation, since most of the claims filed in court deal with economic losses."

Rebecca Mowbray reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune May 26, 2011.

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