Louisiana Insurance Litigation Blog
BP claims and claimants:
The trial against BP, Halliburton and Trans Ocean is set for trial January 14, 2013, to determine punitive damages owed under the maritime law. In a true limitaions action, the unresolved issues include claims among the defendants for which Judge Barbier will apply various laws, e.g., admiralty law and the Oil Field Pollution Act. The trial on punitive damages may enhance your claims under the pending settlement of economics and medicals claims. Settlement of your claims under the pending settlement will bar all future claims against BP and the long list of defendants who are beneficiaries of the transaction and compromise. For more information on the list ofclaims barred by the settlement or your rights in the pending multi-district litigation, contact Thornhill Law Firm.
International Paper and Temple-Inland: Bogalusa paper mill suits filed:
Hundreds of individual claims were filed in Mississippi federal and state courts to recover reasonable compensation for the discharges of toxic substances onto the land of individual property owners residing in Mississippi. The claimants show that there was no right to discharge onto their land any contaminants and that the cost of clean up should be born by the contaminating entities. Among the claims in the newly filed suits, the pleadings show that approximately one year ago, Temple Inland, dba TIN, Inc., with knowledge that its waste water treatment system was unable to clean out contaminants, knowingly and recklessly discharged untreated wastes into the Pearl River, forming the boundary between Louisiana and Mississippi. The discharges onto private land were expressly not permitted by any regulatory agency. In addition, the limited and restricted permits into the water of the Pearl River did not include authority to discharge dioxins, phenols and other semi-volatile organic compounds. These claims by Mississippi residents add International Paper as a defendant for its ongoing role in the continual unauthorized discharges and its liability for acts of Temple Inland which it purchased on February 13, 2012.
In Louisiana federal court, the claims of Louisiana claimants for similar damages to their property are set for trail on December 10, 2012 for eight bellwether claimants. A jury will decide damages due for the dischareges onto land which were not authorized and prohibited on lands of private property owners. The limited and restricted permit of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality expressly advises TIN, Inc. and/or International Paper, the permit holders, that there is not authority given to discharge onto private property. No authority exists for the continued trespasses of the paper mill operation.
Estimates of clean-up costs from land owners and the river bottom exceed $30 million. The cost avoidance that led to the inability of the waste water treatment system to treat and clean the waste from paper making is the amount not spent by TIN, Inc, to maintain its treatment ponds, that total $160 to $200 million. Compensatory and punitive damages are claimed against Temple Inland in the pending Louisiana and Mississippi suits.