Upstate firm takes on BP

By Charles Sowell  

MAY 11, 2010 7:46 p.m. (0)

A Spartanburg law firm has become a player in the flurry of lawsuits stemming from the fire and explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that has spawned an ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

John White, a partner in Harrison, White, Smith and Coggins, said the firm was asked to take part in a Florida lawsuit against all of the major parties to the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

White and the other partners in the case will be representing three Floridians as representatives of the class of people who are dependent for their livelihoods on fishing, real estate and property ownership along the Gulf Coast.

“Everyone who is taking part in this case on behalf of the plaintiffs brings something of significance to the table in the way of expertise,” White said.

White’s firm is one of the major litigators in South Carolina and has connections with other major firms through cases like the class action suit against Toyota over faulty accelerator pedals.

He said attorneys are waiting for court officials to decide where to consolidate the flurry of cases filed against Transocean, LTD, operators of the deep sea drilling ship; British Petroleum, owners of the oil lease; Halliburton Energy Services, who provide drilling services and expertise; and Cameron Corporation, makers of the shutoff safety valve systems that failed to prevent a massive oil spill that threatened much of the U.S. Gulf Coast.

When an explosion and fire rocked the Deepwater Horizon drilling ship on April 20, 11 workers were killed before the ship sank in 5,000 feet of water at the edge of the continental shelf.

When the blowout preventers failed an oil spill that is already the largest ever, started spewing from three sites along an oil pipeline.

Officials from Transocean, BP and Halliburton swapped blame for the disaster during hearings in Washington DC this week.

In the suit brought by White’s firm and others some of the same allegations surface about failed blowout preventers.

The suit alleges that the sheer rams operating the blowout preventers had never been tested at the 5,000-foot depth of the failed well.

The rams were made by Cameron and allegedly had failed once before, in 2001, and BP as well as the operators of the drill ship should have known the shear rams were not effective.

White said he’s confident his firm and the partners can effectively show negligence on the part of BP, Transocen, Halliburton and Cameron.

“We hope to have all of the cases consolidated before one federal judge in the next few months,” he said.

It will be from that basis that all of the litigants pursue their individual lawsuits in what will become an ecological disaster of unprecendented proportions, White said.

Issues like the failure to use safety devices that are standard in other parts of the world will likely also play a major role deciding the case.

Meanwhile National Guard troops fanned out along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana in an attempt to deal with the massive slick that’s being fed by at least 5,000 barrels of oil a day gushing from the sea floor.

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