A RICO lawsuit brought against BP by Pensacola’s own Levin-Papantonio law firm was thrown out by a federal judge on Friday.
No proof . . .
Barbier dismissed the claims, saying there is no proof the plaintiffs were directly harmed by the alleged racketeering.
Levin-Papantonio and a Greenwood, Miss. law firm alleged that BP defrauded regulators in connection with the safety of its drilling operations, its ability to respond to any oil spill, and its response to the actual spill, to the level of racketeering.
Plaintiffs Attorney Mike Papantonio made this statement a year ago.
“If you consider why we are where we are with this catastrophe, it’s because we allowed the oil industry to dictate what we were supposed to do rather than us dictating what they are supposed to do. An agency charged with safeguarding all of us became captive and simply an extension of the petroleum industry.”
Last Friday, US District Judge Carl Barbier said . . .
there was no proof that the plaintiffs, which include businesses and homeowners, were directly harmed in a way to sustain their claims under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act, or RICO. That law originally was intended to fight organised crime.
So a year later it turns out that following current law takes precedence over woulda coulda shoulda “law.”
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier gave BP another win by setting aside claims filed by one of BP’s partners in the well project that resulted in the disaster.
BP won another battle last month when the court said that the Sierra Club can not join the suit as a plaintiff. Because “the Sierra Club failed to show that its interests in the suit were strong enough to grant its motion to join the matter as a plaintiff.” No standing.
I guess we won’t be seeing Dick Cheney being frog marched for anything to do with the Deepwater Horizon accident.
2011 July BP Civil RICO Dismissal
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Links:
- BP racketeering claims dismissed
- US judge dismisses Macondo RICO complaint against BP
- Levin Papantonio’s racketeering suit against BP dismissed
- Sierra Club Can’t Join U.S. to Sue BP