In Oil Spill Liability Mess, BP Gets Stuck With Its Own Deal

BP had another very bad day in Louisiana. For the second time in two months, a federal appeals court panel told the London-based energy producer that it’s stuck with the multibillion-dollar deal it made with plaintiffs’ lawyers to settle one portion of its enormous liability stemming from the April 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

BP has argued for a year that the administrator overseeing the settlement has been paying out hundreds of millions of dollars in unsubstantiated claims to small business owners in the gulf region. The appeals court said, in effect: “Too bad.” BP’s lawyers agreed to a loosely worded settlement, the appellate panel concluded Monday, and now the company has to keep paying, even when there is no clear evidence—or any evidence at all—that business losses were related to the spill.