Court says BP's spill agreement is binding
http://www.adn.com/2014/03/04/3357386/court-says-bps-spill-agreement.html
Court says BP's spill agreement is binding
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON and JOHN SCHWARTZ
New York Times News Service
March 4, 2014
NEW ORLEANS -- In a setback for BP as it deals with the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, a U.S. appeals court ruled Monday that the company would have to stick to its agreement and pay some gulf businesses for economic damage without their having to prove it was caused by the spill.
BP had argued strenuously in court, and in newspaper advertisements, that the settlement had been unfairly misinterpreted and that it was being forced to pay for damage unrelated to the accident.
But in a strongly worded opinion, Judge Leslie H. Southwick ruled that the company was bound by the agreement it had signed. That deal said businesses in certain areas along the gulf that could demonstrate economic losses under an accounting formula were due payments without having to provide explicit evidence that their losses were caused by the oil spill.
"These requirements are not as protective of BP's present concerns as might have been achievable, but they are the protections that were accepted by the parties and approved by the district court," wrote Southwick, who was joined in the result by Judge James L. Dennis.