NEW ORLEANS (CN) - An attorney for BP on Friday asked a federal judge to reject a legal memorandum about the Gulf oil spill that Louisiana filed "without warning." U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, overseeing the consolidated litigation, allowed the brief, but warned the state that it "doesn't have the right to violate schedule management orders."
BP attorney Andrew Langan said the state's 67-page "unauthorized" document was not filed under auspices of the plaintiff steering committee, which is in charge of all plaintiff-related matters in the consolidated litigation.
But Allan Kanner, an attorney for the state, said he had filed an intent with the court, and when he heard no objection, he filed the document.
"The State of Louisiana might have hundreds of millions of dollars in moratorium and other issues," said Kanner, whose firm, Kanner & Whiteley, is assisting Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy" Caldwell.
Judge Barbier was less than enthusiastic. He asked how Kanner's position could differ from the plaintiff steering committee's, and said that a notice of intent is not adequate warning that a brief will be filed.
"If we're merely rearguing matters, as Mr. Langan said, then he doesn't need to read it," Kanner said.
Barbier said that his concern was not for Langan's heavy reading list but for his own. Though he allowed the brief, he scolded Kanner as he did so.
"Why doesn't Louisiana think it has to play by the same rules as everybody else in this litigation?" Barbier asked.
Kanner's long brief takes issue with BP's and Transocean's attempt to limit their liability through narrow interpretation of the Oil Pollution Act. In it, he says the state's involvement with enforcing liability is necessary because Louisiana is shouldering the bulk of physical damages from the oil spill, and because billions of dollars are at stake.
"Defendants argue that Louisiana's laws and maritime claims are preempted by the Clean Water Act (CWA) by fundamentally misconstruing the act's purpose and suggesting that the release of almost 5 million barrels was permitted discharge," the state's brief states.
The document states that BP's program, "pre-Gulf Coast Claims Facility ('GCCF') is universally perceived to have failed," and that if claimants aren't allowed to settle their claims in court, the claims process will drag on endlessly.
The document argues that all damages arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill - from unpaid wages for cleanup workers to oil workers who were hurt by the moratorium - are damages that BP and Transocean must pay, under the Oil Pollution Act.
"The State of Louisiana in the epicenter of the environmental and economic harms suffered as a result of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe and resulting oil spill," the document states. "The state and its people have suffered substantial economic damages as a result of the spill and the associated response efforts. Likewise, Louisiana's coastal environment and ecosystem are continuing to suffer extensive injuries that could fundamentally alter Louisiana's most defining natural resources for generations. The damages that defendants have caused are as insidious as the oil itself, still appearing and mounting daily without an apparent end in sight.