wistahpatsfan

You should be able to sue when your livelihood id damaged by the actions of others. It's called the Law of Commons and it's one of the oldest tenets of civilized society. Fishermen and others who harvest the sea have common access to the US territorial waters and it is assumed that they shouls have unfettered use and access unless otherwise specified by regulation. When a sea is overfished, fishermen have no one else to blame but themselves unless the government does not allow them to fish because they failed to manage the fishing rate in the first place. Either the government is allowed to manage stocks or not. Either they can limit the fishing or not. Todfay, they can do both.

In the case of the BP Spill, they are violating the Nuisance law which has been codified since the 15th century. They have violated the rights of others who use the "common" property of the Gulf of Mexico.

In Duck Soup, Groucho is president of Freedonia, and one day while in his office, he hears a noisy peanut vendor (Chico) out in the street.
Groucho: "Do you want to be a public nuisance?"
Chico: "Sure, how much does the job pay?"

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mcgraw_wv

Well then, have at them... Again, I think the 75million cap should be applied to property damage and personal loss.

And the cleanup is an uncapped expense, that they will pay until it's 100% cleaned up.


What I don't want to see is Shrimp Fisherman becoming overnight millionaires becuase they were lucky enough to have a shrimp boat during this disaster.

Real World

I don't know what the law is, but they should ABSOLUTELY pay. I mean, who else should? It abject lunacy to think that someone else should pick up the tab here.

This $75 million cap is news to me. I never knew it even existed. If this is indeed the law, then that makes the federal response all the more tragic. If we taxpayers are ultimately responsible ($75 million is peanuts with respect to the end cost), then the fed should have stepped in ASAP, and shot a torpedo into the well, and caved it in on itself. This accident is certain to cost tens of billions of dollars IMO. Does anyone know why there's $75 million cap?

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

mcgraw_wv

I've heard of a guy who used to bullseye womp rats in his T-16 back home. They're not much bigger than two meters...

PatsFanInEaglesLand

Yeah because trial lawyers, who I guess you believe aren't ultra-rich, take 50% of the settlement and their fees. Maybe you should think about what your saying. Are you carrying water for the poor lawyers?

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Mrs.PatsFanInVa

Right.....and do what, hope that it didn't just make the hole bigger and allow even more oil to escape?

apple strudel

There are ways to limit lawyers' fees without limiting corporate liability. That is, if that's what you're really interested in.

apple strudel

Torpedo is not nearly enough - according to the Russians you'd need a nuke, and even then it's only 80% successful, only been tried 5 times, and has a whole sh1tload of other associated problems.

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

The $75 million liability cap was enacted in 1990 as part of the Oil Pollution Act following the Exxon Valdez spill - that would be under Poppy Bush - you could ask him, perhaps he'd know.

Oil spill liability cap under fire - May. 25, 2010

They're also trying to raise the cap - but certain senators keep refusing to consider the idea - you could ask them why. That would be Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in case you're wondering.

Republicans Block Proposals to Raise Cap on Oil Spill Liability - Roll Call

Gulf oil spill: Alaska senator blocks move to raise oil spill liability | Greenspace | Los Angeles Times

patsfan13

Apparently you haven't seen how much the trial lawyers contribute to dems to prevent caps on their fees.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."