Deepwater Horizon Injury Cases Centralized In Eastern District of Louisiana
On August 10, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation announced its decision on pending motions to centralize legal proceedings arising out of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster. After considering a large number of possible transferee districts and judges, the MDL Panel selected the Eastern District of Louisiana as the most appropriate district for the litigation.
In its Transfer Order, the MDL Panel concluded that the Deepwater Horizon cases were appropriate for centralization, and that centralization of the proceedings could aid closer coordination with administration of the BP compensation fund by Kenneth Feinberg.
As to its selection of the Eastern District of Louisiana, the court said:
Without discounting the spill’s effects on other states, if there is a geographic and psychological "center of gravity" in this docket, then the Eastern District of Louisiana is closest to it. Considering all of the applicable factors, we have asked Judge Carl J. Barbier to serve as transferee judge. He has had a distinguished career as an attorney and now as a jurist. Moreover, during his twelve years on the bench, Judge Barbier has gained considerable MDL experience, and has been already actively managing dozens of cases in this docket. We have every confidence that he is well prepared to handle a litigation of this magnitude.
In addition to centralizing wrongful death, personal injury, property damage, and other damages litigation in the Eastern District of Louisiana, the MDL Panel noted that it would be issuing a conditional transfer order covering the limitation proceeding brought by certain Transocean entities and now pending in the Southern District of Texas.
Media reports indicate that by separate order the MDL Panel also transferred a small group of securities suits arising from the Deepwater Horizon matter. These included one filed in California and two pending in the Western District of California. The MDL Panel deemed that those actions should be centralized in the Southern District of Texas.
The MDL Panel's Transfer Order in MDL No. 2179, In re: Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, can be found here.
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