Oil Spill Claim Guidelines Cause Uproar

(CBS)  President Obama's choice to run the BP oil spill claims fund said Saturday he hopes to process individual claims within 48 hours and business claims within seven days.

But even before Kenneth Feinberg takes charge on Monday, there's already an uproar over application guidelines.

Gulf coast restaurant owner Matt Shipp has been crushed by the BP oil spill, CBS News Correspondent Elaine Quijano reports.

"We survive off the water and live off the water," said Shipp. "Financially, personally, I have lost pretty much everything. There is no more personal finances available in my life anymore."

He's waited months for a compensation check from BP. His Alabama restaurant has lost a quarter of a million dollars.

On Monday, the fate of businesses like his will lie in the hands of Feinberg, a prominent Washington lawyer.

"If you have documented your claim, you will be paid in 48 hours," Feinberg said at a public meeting Friday.

Feinberg will take over as administrator of BP's $20 billion claims fund. He's touring the region, explaining the process, helping people fill out forms and promising quicker payments.

He faces a daunting challenge in trying to assign a dollar value to damages that could continue for years to come.

Under the rules for emergency claims, people who live close to the water or make their living on the water will qualify:

"Fishermen, shrimpers, crabbers, oyster people, you are all covered, you are all eligible," Feinberg said Friday.

Yet for businesses far from the beaches but that still claim spill-related losses, those checks may never come and many are crying foul.

"BP received claims from 48 states," Feinberg said Saturday. "Forty-eight states. Now obviously we will not recognize claims from 48 states for harm this Gulf shore."

There are others that will not be reimbursed, including claims for:

• loss of property value
• mental health claims
• loss of jobs due to drilling moratorium

Already, protests are mounting.

"The word 'happy' is not in the dictionary," said Feinberg. "Nobody can be expected to be happy. These citizens have suffered a great harm. Few will consider themselves happy over this."

At Shipp's restaurant, the doors are still open, barely.

"It is a survival mode, and that's what we are trying to do," Shipp said.

Under the guidelines, people who receive emergency compensation will not waive the right to sue, and if the $20 billion fund runs out, BP says it will continue to pay legitimate claims.

[pragmatist1]

Those are the guidelines and these individuals will have to abide by them. Many are trying to get claims on things that can't be quantified. Guessing and speculation isn't going to be factored into the payouts, and that's how it should be. Life isn't fair.

[jjoe57]

Feinberg is a knowledgable and experienced claims arbitrator. The claims process is intended to be fair and equitable. It is based partly on longstanding legal rules of negligence, including proximate cause and foreseeability.

[starving1968-3]

by Banned_by_CBS August 22, 2010 1:03 AM EDT
Well, I'm filing a claim against BP because I'm already an entitlement recipient living on the Gulf Coast and I'm suffering from the stress that I won't be able to get my welfare check because of the government's potential loss of tax revenues from individuals and businees that work here. Please Obama, help me because you promised to take care of me if I voted for you and the other Democrats.







Got a link to that "promise"?

[starving1968-3]

by rightbehind August 22, 2010 9:54 AM EDT
People should be thankful republicans are not in charge. They would be handing a bill to the tax payers for this. PS that wouldn't be the wealthy.






No the wealthy wouldn't get the bill from the IRS, but you can bet they'd be getting the majority slice of the $20 BILLION claims fund!

[bradkt1]

Damage payments received due to death or personal injuries are NOT taxable as income. Damage payments received that represent lost profits are always taxable, just like ordinary profits of any income producing enterprise are.

[PatriotMike2]

I guess those restaurants should have replaced oyster dishes with egg dishes. Oh, wait, egg recall, can't do that. Well, then maybe beef. Ooops, e coli or mad cow is still out there. Maybe wild game. Nope, chronic wasting disease. Well, there is still poultry. Whoops, avian flu, wouldn't be prudent. So, we'll have pork. Oh darn, swine flu.... Um, lettuce? Nope, e coli again.

All kidding aside, that restaurant should have been able to get supplies elsewhere. And his lost income probably results from decreased tourism, which is still connected to the spill but this starts to get a tad remote on the causal timeline and it could have been caused by the lousy economy as well.

[bradkt1]

Your point is a vadid one. There has to be a direct connection between damages suffered and the oil spill. Loss of profits due to the oil drilling moratorium are unrelated to the actual oil spill itself. Loss of profits which could have been caused by the economic downturn lack a direct causal relationship with the oil spill. That's only two examples where the line has to be drawn.

The point of a compensation fund isn't to make everyone well who might have been impacted. It is to try to help those who got hurt the worst. You will never be able to help everyone.

The compensation fund isn't perfect, but payouts have to be administered in a similar way that a court would rule when it comes to awarding damages.

Just think how much worse it would be for BP's victims if BP hadn't created this compensation fund as a result of pressure from the Obama Administration. Claimants who are clear cut cases are going to get paid right away. Claimants who have suffered health problems are going to get paid as their medical documentation is presented. Claimants who can show a direct economic connection between their business and/or jobs and the oil spill will get paid.

It is going to take some time to sort out the rest and there are going to be some people that the government will have to say no to. There will also be the fraudulent claimants who smell the posibility of getting paid big money and they have to be weeded out. That has always been the Achilles hell of FEMA's post-disaster payouts...they are pressured by politicians to just throw the money out there and then a year of two later we act surprised when we hear about all of the money that went to those who didn't deserve it.

[rightbehind]

People should be thankful republicans are not in charge. They would be handing a bill to the tax payers for this. PS that wouldn't be the wealthy.

[nehicks]

For this Atlanta restaurant, listed in the article, has he no other company he can buy fish from? Does his 1 supplier, since that must be all he has, deliver the fish every morning? That is the only reason he should be able to claim damages. Maybe he should quit sitting around waiting for a check and find another supplier. It would give him a chance to update his menu too, so that it reflects the new kind of seafood that is available. If he was a good owner, he would have done this months ago when the trouble first started.

[Renewable216]

This is now about Mitt Romney running for president in 2012 . The gulf residents can wait until the Massachusetts residents collect from the 2003 oil spill !

Mitt Romney was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts from Jan 2,2003 to Jan 4,2007. During his one term the Buzzards Bay oil spill happened during April 2003 .

On April 27, 2003, eight years ago the Bouchard Barge B-120 hit an obstacle in Buzzards Bay, creating a 12-foot rupture in its hull and discharging an estimated 100,000 gallons of No. 6 oil. The oil is known to have affected an estimated 90 miles of shoreline, killed 450 numerous bird species, and recreational use of the bay, such as shell fishing and boating.


Since the 2003 oil spill the US Coast Guard has appealed the 2004 Massachusetts Oil Spill Prevention Act and one Massachusetts property damage lawsuit has dragged on for eight years. Republican Mitt Romney is laying the groundwork for a possible White House campaign in 2012, hiring a team of staff members and consultants.

[wlhoppers]

If they handle the Gulf claims the way they're handling the Make Homes Affordable progam then they're screwed.

I'm probably going to lose my house because MHA can't even begin to consider my case "we're not ready to look at it." True quote. But the bank may not be kind enough to wait to foreclose until they're ready.

So I really, really hope the people with legitimate claims on the gulf spill damage effects are taken care of quickly and appropriately. No one should have to wait to restore their life because their government created a bureaucratic black hole for their paperwork.

[Markxs1949]

I could be worse. What if everyone had to sue to get their money. I think the experience with the Exxon Valdes spill made pretty clear what that would be like. I think the president did these folks a REALLY big favor shaking 20 billion out of BP up front.

[hdc77494]

Newsreel, if you don't think a beach restaurant can do a quarter mil in business you've been living under a rock. I know restaurants in Houston that do $100k a week. I was also amused by the claimants wanting BP to pay their losses from Obama's misguided moratorium. One spill in thirty years, and he had to stop all drilling? Yeah right. Try to collect firm Obama's enviro whacko EPA chief. She also wants to stop a multi billion dollar pipeline from Canada to Texas because it might hurt air quality for the underprivileged people living outside the largest refinery in the world.

Do you have any idea how many tanker loads will have to be moved ti replace this pipeline? How many good jobs will go out the window? The administration has started a war against fossil fuels. Great, except we have no other viable option in the next century.

[Markxs1949]

AS far as I know, the president did not stop 'all' drilling, only the deep water wells, about 30 out of 3,000. Oh, and perhaps it's time to start the war on fossil fuels. They're bad for the environment and make our enemies rich (unless you're a Bush, then they're not your enemies, they're your Ami's).