BP Takes Gulf Oil Spill Damages Appeal to Supreme Court

The oil company BP said Wednesday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal of a ruling by a lower court concerning damage payments to businesses affected by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The company argues the lower court ruling will force it to pay for economic damages to business without those businesses having to prove their losses resulted from the spill.

“No company would agree to pay for losses that it did not cause, and BP certainly did not when it entered into this settlement,” the company said in a statement. “BP will continue to fight to return the settlement to its original, explicit, and lawful purpose – the compensation of claimants who suffered actual losses due to the spill.”

On Monday, in an 8-5 decision the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans declined to hear BP’s appeal of a March ruling on how payments would be made in the estimated $9.2 billion settlement the company reached with parties representing affected businesses.