Murky waters
October 05, 2010
The owners of the Deepwater Horizon oil-rig which caused such massive pollution in the Gulf of Mexico, the loss of life of 11 oil-rig workers, and the injury of many more are invoking an ancient statute to limit work accident claims being made against them by rig workers and their families..
The Deepwater Horizon oil-rig was famously part of BP’s operation but the rig itself was owned by an international drilling company named Transocean. Work accident claims are being made by those workers and the families of the deceased against Transocean, but the company’s solicitors are trying a “damage limitation” legal tactic by invoking an 1851 US statute from the days of wooden sailing ships. The company argues that the US courts should put a fixed limit on the overall amount of work accident compensation which could be awarded.
They argue that an oil rig which is capable of navigating itself is a “ship” for the purposes of maritime law. The 1851 US law says that when a ship is lost at sea the amount of compensation which can be claimed is limited to the value of the vessel immediately after the sinking. So, the company argues that as Deepwater Horizon now lies in a tangled heap of metal at the bottom of the Gulf, the vessel itself is worth virtually nothing, and all that can be valued is the oil which it had extracted and which was awaiting sale before the explosion, that figure is the limit of what the US courts can award, regardless of how much work accident compensation the injured workers and the families of those who were killed would otherwise be entitled to receive.
US solicitors pursuing the work accident compensation for workers are fighting back. They will seek to persuade the Court that the 1851 statute does not apply where the rig’s owners and managers knew, or ought to have known, that it was in a potentially hazardous condition. That information, they say, was available to Transocean before Deepwater Horizon blew up.
And the US Congress is considering repealing the 1851 statute.
In a globalised labour market, where UK workers are exposed to hazards in workplaces all over the world, it is important to keep informed about the legal obstacles which big corporations will try to put in the way of legitimate claims for work accident compensation for personal injury and loss. More information about work accident compensation claims.