More than half of the federal judges in districts where the bulk of
Gulf oil spill-related lawsuits are pending have financial connections
to the oil and gas industry, complicating the task of finding judges
without conflicts to hear the cases, an Associated Press analysis of
judicial financial disclosure reports shows.
Thirty-seven of the 64 active or senior judges in key Gulf Coast
districts in Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida have
links to oil, gas and related energy industries, including some who own
stocks or bonds in BP PLC, Halliburton or Transocean - and others who
regularly list receiving royalties from oil and gas production wells,
according to the reports judges must file each year. The AP reviewed
2008 disclosure forms, the most recent available.
Those three
companies are named as defendants in virtually all of the 150-plus
lawsuits seeking damages, mainly for economic losses in the fishing,
seafood, tourism and related industries, that have been filed over the
growing oil spill since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded
April 20, killing 11 workers. Attorneys for the companies and those
suing them are pushing for consolidation of the cases in one court,
with BP recommending Texas and others advocating for Louisiana and
other states.
A Washington-based federal judicial panel is
scheduled to meet next month to decide whether to consolidate the cases
and, if so, which judge should be assigned the monumental task. The job
would include such key pretrial decisions as certifying a large class
of plaintiffs to seek damages, a potential multibillion-dollar
settlement, whether to dismiss the cases and what documents BP and the
other companies might be forced to produce in court.
The AP
review of disclosure statements shows the oil and gas industry's roots
run as deep in the Gulf Coast's judiciary as they do in the region's
economy. For example, one federal judge in Texas is a member of
Houston's Petroleum Club, an "exclusive, handsome club of, and for, men
of the oil industry."
Federal judicial rules require judges to
disqualify themselves from hearing cases involving a company in which
they have a direct financial interest, and some Louisiana judges have
already done so. For example, U.S. District Judge Mary Ann Vial Lemmon
in New Orleans, who reported ownership of BP stock, issued an order in
early May that the court clerk not allot cases involving BP or related
entities to her docket.
Another New Orleans jurist, U.S. District
Judge Carl Barbier, said in court Friday he is selling his oil and gas
investments - which included Transocean and Halliburton - to avoid any
perception of a conflict. Barbier is presiding over about 20
spill-related lawsuits and some attorneys are recommending that he be
chosen to oversee all cases filed nationally.
Still another judge
in Louisiana, U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon, recused himself because
his attorney son-in-law is representing several people and businesses
filing suits against BP and the other companies over the rig explosion.
In
many ways, the financial conflict rules are murky. For example, a judge
does not have to step aside if the investments are part of a mutual
fund over which they have no management control. Mere ties to companies
or entities in the same industry, no matter how extensive, also don't
require disqualification, according to legal experts.
"The
specific rule forbids judges from hearing a case in which they have a
financial interest. The more general rule forbids them from hearing
cases in which their impartiality might reasonably be questioned," said
Charles Geyh, an Indiana University law professor who has closely
studied judicial ethics.
So a judge like U.S. District Judge
Stanwood Duval of New Orleans would not have to disqualify himself even
though he reported royalties from "mineral interest No. 1 and No. 2" in
Terrebonne Parish, La., on his 2008 forms. Likewise for Senior U.S.
District Judge William Barbour Jr. of Mississippi, who listed at least
30 oil and gas interests in three states including "McGowan Working
Partners" and "Petro-Hunt Bovina Field," both in Mississippi.
Some
judges have close ties to the energy industry that aren't for financial
gain, but could still raise questions of potential bias.
The
judge BP wants to hear all of the spill-related cases, U.S. District
Judge Lynn Hughes of Houston, for the past two years has been a
"distinguished lecturer" focusing on ethical issues for the
35,000-member American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Hughes
is not paid a fee but does receive reimbursements for travel, food and
lodging, said association spokesman Larry Nation. Hughes has appeared
at petroleum geologist meetings in several Texas cities, in New Orleans
and also in Cape Town, South Africa. He is scheduled to give a lecture
later this month in Calgary, Canada, the oil and gas capital of that
country.
"Under the circumstances, I can see why the questions
are being raised," Nation said. "But one of the reasons Judge Hughes
was chosen to be a lecturer is that he is known as a very ethical
person. I would think his being an ethics lecturer for our organization
would be a positive, not a negative."
Hughes said at a hearing
Friday that his work for the geologists poses no conflict and that his
other oil and gas investments - which include royalties from several
mineral rights interests - are not connected to BP or the other
companies involved in the spill lawsuits.
Florida attorney Scott
Weinstein, whose firm represents charter captains and other companies
suffering economic loss from the spill - including the owners of the
Ripley's Believe It or Not museum in Key West - said people might think
it's unfair for BP to win its wish with a Texas judge rather than one
seated in Louisiana or Florida, where the spill's impacts are greater.
"I
would never assume that a judge is biased because of the jurisdiction
that he or she sits in," Weinstein said. Still, "if this case winds up
in Houston, many of the victims will feel very distant from where that
justice is being handed out. It will not make sense to them."
Another Florida plaintiffs' attorney, Stuart Smith, was more blunt about the companies' aims.
"They would get much more sympathetic judges and perhaps a more sympathetic jury," Smith said.
In
court papers, BP says that Hughes has the "experience and capacity" to
handle the lawsuits and that Houston is the ideal location because most
of the defendants' companies have headquarters or major operations
there. BP spokesman have repeatedly declined to comment on pending
lawsuits.
Some attorneys have come up with an unusual assertion:
import a New York federal judge with a strong background in
environmental lawsuits to Louisiana to preside over the cases.
They
are recommending that the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict
Litigation appoint U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin. Scheindlin
presided over settlement of some 200 lawsuits brought against BP and
other oil companies over a toxic additive called MTBE that contaminated
drinking supplies nationally - and she has no oil and gas investments,
according to her financial disclosure forms.
Attorneys with the
Weitz & Luxenberg firm in New York said they recommended Scheindlin
rather than a Louisiana judge because "most or all of the judges in the
(Louisiana) district have a conflict and cannot preside" over the
consolidated cases.
Scheindlin's deputy said Friday she was out of town and unavailable to comment on whether she would accept such an appointment.
The
judicial panel meets July 29 in Boise, Idaho, to hear arguments on
consolidation of the oil spill cases. Recommendations also have been
made for sending the cases to Alabama, Mississippi and South Florida.
Common Dreams/AP