A divided federal appeals court panel has ruled that BP PLC should have been allowed to temporarily block payment of claims from the $9.6 billion Deepwater Horizon settlement while challenging the methods by which those payments were being calculated.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday reversed two significant orders granted earlier this year by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans against BP involving the settlement, which resolved claims by individuals and businesses asserting economic damages caused by the 2010 oil spill.
