Lafourche resumes hunt for elusive white rabbit
April 6, 2011
Arthur Hebert Jr.
April 8, 2011
The April 20 anniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion and blowout will be marked in federal court as a team of lawyers appointed by the Terrebonne Parish Council files claims against the embattled petroleum giant and other companies associated with technological and scientific elements linked to the deadly and most severe oil spill ever experienced in the United States.
The law firms of Duval, Funderburk, Sundbery, Lovell & Watkins of Houma, St. Martin & Bourque of Houma and Leger & Shaw of New Orleans will pool their resources to address current and future damages experienced by Terrebonne Parish as a result of the oil spill that occurred 351 days ago.
“Please understand that this is mass tort litigation, multi-district litigation,” said Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet. “[It is] extremely expensive [but] it’s not going to be at a cost to the parish.”
The team of what Claudet called “legal all-stars” will work on a contingency basis and will fund all costs in advance.
Mass tort litigation is a fairly new area of complex legal practice. It generally refers to instances when a corporation or individual does harm to a specifically designated group of people. It involves investigating detailed elements related to design and manufacturing. Cases can include product liability, anti-trust claims and large man-made disasters.
“[We will be working] in connection with damages sustained by the many local governments, the Oil Pollution Act [of 1990] and other laws provided for remedies to recover the losses,” said Walter Leger Jr., of Leger and Shaw. “We will be examining, as lawyers for Terrebonne Parish, what their legal rights are and what we need to be doing to protect the parish’s rights.”
Charles E. “Chuck” Bourque, of St. Martin and Bourque, said that no set dollar amount has yet been established in connection with this lawsuit. “We have been hired to investigate and recover any and all claims past and future,” he said. “The claim that will be filed will be a very general claim at the time of filing because damages will not have been quantified.”
A working relationship between the designated legal all-star team and the parish will go through Terrebonne legal counsel Courtney Alcock.
“They will probably liaison for me and keep me abreast of what’s going on in litigation in federal court,” Alcock said. “What they are going to do is handle all the depositions, select all the discovery, assess all damages and [bring] that to court.”
No prescription has been issued for claims at this time, and technically is not necessary under the Oil Protection Act for three years from the date of an incident.
Members of the parish council voiced support of their selection. “We have the best of the best that want to represent us,” said Councilwoman Arlanda Williams.
Terrebonne Parish is not the only government body being represented by select members of this legal team. Leger & Shaw is also representing Lafourche, St. Bernard and St. Tammany parishes in similar cases. Berwick Duval, lead counsel for Duval, Funderburk, Sundbery, Lovell & Watkins, has been a passionate advocate for Louisiana wetlands. And St. Martin & Bourque has litigated cases against large tobacco, pharmaceutical and medical supply companies.
Claudet and Alcock each suggested that the joint combined expertise of these three firms offers a greater arsenal for the parish.
“We want to make sure we cover ourselves,” Alcock said.
“We appreciate the work we know they will do in the future,” said Claudet.
Defendants named in the Terrebonne Parish case are listed as including BP Exploration & Production, Inc., Anadarko Petroleum Corp., Moex Offshore 2007 L.L.C., Anadarko E&P Co. L.P., B.P., Plc., BP Products North America, BP America, Inc., Halliburton Energy Services, Inc., Cameron International Corp. f/k/a Cooper-Cameron Corp., Swaco, A Division of M-I L.L.C. and other responsibility parties.
Scenes from the April 20, 2010, BP Deepwater Horizon explosion are pictured as a reminder of what would lead to legal action. U.S. COAST GUARD
