Judge Orders BP Chief To Testify
Vince Leibowitz | Oct 12, 2006 | Comments 0
If you haven’t been following the saga of the British Petroleum explosion lawsuits down on the Gulf Coast, you should be (if for no other reason that it’s being handled by Judge Susan Criss, one of the state’s rising judicial stars and the lady who seems to land a lot of the high-profile cases on the Texas Gulf Coast).
Anyway, Criss has ordered BP’s CEO to testify in depositions:
BP Plc Chief Executive Officer John Browne was ordered by a Texas judge to give sworn testimony for lawsuits stemming from an explosion that killed 15 workers and injured hundreds more at the company’s biggest refinery.
The judge also sanctioned BP for failing to turn over a document, allowing victims to seek punitive damages beyond the normal state limit. A lawyer for injured BP workers also told the judge at a hearing in Galveston that U.S. prosecutors subpoenaed records the company turned over to his clients for the suits.
Lord Browne, 58, has been giving interviews and meeting with BP employees, “indicating he has unique superior knowledge,” Judge Susan Criss said at the hearing. “I’m not convinced he doesn’t want to come here to this courtroom and tell the whole world.”
Wow. Sanctions, too. When people complain about “liberal activist judges,” (which Criss is not), keep in mind that it’s law and order judges like Criss, a Democrat, that help hold multi-billion dollar international congolomerates accountable.
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