$100 Million Verdict Mostly Punitive

By Susan Beck
December 21, 2009
We're sorry to rain on the parade of the ten contract workers who won a $100 million verdict against energy company BP in a Galveston federal district court on Friday, but the chances of that verdict surviving intact are pretty slim. That's because all but $300,000 of that amount represents punitive damages. If you compute the ratio of punitive to actual damages, you get 333 to 1, which is not a ratio that many courts will look favorably on. In addition, Texas caps punitive damages in most cases at $200,000 per plaintiff.

Still, that verdict should get the attention of BP, which faces similar claims by an additional 133 workers. All claim to have been injured by a toxic chemical release at BP's troubled Texas City oil refinery in 2007. Click here for an account of the verdict by the Houston Chronicle.

We talked on Monday to plaintiffs lawyer Anthony Buzbee of Galveston's Buzbee Law Firm, who represents the 10 workers who won the verdict, as well as the other 133. "The whole purpose of the case was to punish BP," said Buzbee. "I was very upfront [with the jury] that this was a punitive damages case." He admits that his clients' injuries were minor: All were released from the hospital the same day they were admitted. But, he contended, BP has a history of safety violations at this plant that it refuses to remedy. The Texas City refinery is the same facility where 15 workers were killed in a 2005 explosion, leading the company to pay $2 billion in private damages and a $50 million criminal fine (see third item). Federal and state regulators, he contended, are unwilling or unable to force the company to improve the safety of its working conditions. (The company is fighting an $87 million fine imposed this year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.)

"Honestly, I didn't want to try this case. I have other cases I wanted to try," said Buzbee. He maintained that he offered to settle for $10,000 per worker, but BP refused. Buzbee said he has a "long history" of representing plaintiffs against BP, including representing roughly 180 people injured in the 2005 explosion. He urged this jury to act with a sense of mission: "I told the jury from the beginning to do something historic."

Buzbee acknowledged that he will have to clear steep hurdles in post trial motions--which will be heard by Galveston federal district court judge Kenneth Hoyt--and in an appeal. Buzbee claimed he should be able to "bust" the state punitive damages cap because BP engaged in a felony by lying to authorities about the safety of its plant.

BP issued the following statement: "We are shocked and outraged by today's verdict, and we will appeal. We believe the evidence showed that BP did not cause harm to anyone on April 19, 2007. The verdict, and punitive damages award in particular, is utterly unjustified, improper and unsupportable." (The company declined to comment on Buzbee's statement regarding his settlement offers.)

We reached out to BP's lead trial lawyer, James Galbraith of the Galveston office of McLeod, Alexander, Powel & Apffel, but have not heard back.