The state of Mississippi is asking that a portion of the proposed $7.8 billion settlement with BP PLC in the Deepwater Horizon litigation be declared null and void, because it excludes more than 200,000 people and businesses that illegally settled claims under an administrative process that forced them to waive all future economic damages.
“No Settlement or Class Definition that incorporates the illegal, illegally-obtained and unconscionable GCCF Releases, to exclude 200,000 claimants from the settlement benefits, can be deemed fair, adequate or reasonable,” Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood said in a prepared statement on April 26. He referred to the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, the administrative process set up with $40 billion from BP.
