BP faces welter of US lawsuits

BP this morning announced it had received 30,000 claims and has made more than 15,000 payments already, totalling some $40m. It has received more than 110,000 calls into its help lines.

BP faces class action lawsuits in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida for loss of earnings, enjoyment or property, or for bereavement caused by the Deepwater Horizon rig, The Guardian reports.

BP has pledged to meet all "legitimate claims". Financial analysts fear the cost could get out of control if oil continues to flow into the Gulf.

UBS says BP could face a bill of $12bn (£8.25bn). Jason Kenney, an analyst at ING Commercial banking, increased his estimate of the cost from $5.3bn to up to $22bn if the spill continues until August.

Lawsuits

One suit is filed in the name of Kimberly and Do Nguyen, who run a seafood business called The Shrimp Guy. It seeks damages on behalf of all Mississippi businesses engaged in "wholesale, retail and/or delivery" of seafood caught in the Gulf of Mexico, accusing BP of failure to "prevent or mitigate risk" of an oil spill.

Many claims allege that BP ignored evidence of a broken seal on its well and that it and Transocean were aware of failures in the power source of a blowout preventer that was supposed to seal the well in an emergency.

Mark Lanier, a Houston-based lawyer for one group of plaintiffs, said the litigation against BP would make the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska look like "an oil leak in a car".

"Honestly, this is a monstrosity, it's a tragedy," he told Texas Lawyer magazine. He said it might become the biggest legal battle in US history. "This is going to be, in my estimation, the largest tort we've had in this country."