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Prometheus Unbound: the Gulf Coast Claims Facility As a Means for Resolving Mass Tort Claims - a Fund Too Far, 71 La

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Prometheus Unbound: the Gulf Coast Claims Facility As a Means for Resolving Mass Tort Claims - a Fund Too Far, 71 La Louisiana Law Review Volume 71 | Number 3 Spring 2011 Prometheus Unbound: The ulG f Coast Claims Facility as a Means for Resolving Mass Tort Claims - A Fund Too Far Linda S. Mullenix Repository Citation Linda S. Mullenix, Prometheus Unbound: The Gulf Coast Claims Facility as a Means for Resolving Mass Tort Claims - A Fund Too Far, 71 La. L. Rev. (2011) Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.lsu.edu/lalrev/vol71/iss3/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Reviews and Journals at LSU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Louisiana Law Review by an authorized editor of LSU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Prometheus Unbound: The Gulf Coast Claims Facility as a Means for Resolving Mass Tort Claims-A Fund Too Far Linda S. Mullenix* I. INTRODUCTION In the well-known Greek myth, Prometheus stole fire from the Greek god Zeus and gave it to humanity. In return for this arrogance, Zeus had Prometheus chained to a rock in the Caucasus Mountains where Prometheus was punished by an eagle eating away at his liver, which regenerated every night. Because Prometheus was immortal, he was condemned to eternal torture by the voracious eagle's pecking. After 30 years of this punishment, however, Hercules appeared, killed the eagle, and liberated Prometheus from his unending torment. In return for freeing him, Prometheus rewarded Hercules with the secret to completing the 11th of his famous Herculean labors.' On April 20, 2010, an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and unleashed the worst oil spill in American history. Less than two months later, on June 16th, 2010, BP Oil-after meeting with President Barack Obama-agreed to set up a $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the disaster. Shortly thereafter, BP selected Kenneth Feinberg to oversee the compensation fund and claims process. In the morality play of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, BP assumed the Promethean role of modem energy-bringer to mankind. In its arrogance for attempting to expropriate energy from miles below the ocean floor and bring oil to mankind, BP precipitated a massive calamity. As a consequence, BP faced the eternal punishment of being lashed to the American Caucasus of never-ending civil litigation, perpetually to be pecked away by claimants. Rather than endure this interminable retribution, BP instead chose to terminate its own agony as quickly as possible by creating a fund. And, Hercules-in the form of the heroic Ken Copyright 2011, by LINDA S. MULLENIX. * Morris and Rita Atlas Chair in Advocacy, University of Texas School of Law. The author thanks Melissa Bernstein, Faculty Services Coordinator at the Tarlton Law Library, University of Texas School of Law, for her research assistance on this project. 1. Prometheus gave Hercules the secret to stealing the golden apples from the Hesperides. PIERRE GRIMAL, THE DICTIONARY OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY 202 (Blackwell Publ'g 1996) (1951). 820 LOUISIANA LAW RE VIEW [Vol. 71 Feinberg-appeared to BP just in time to slay the civil litigators and liberate BP. For his efforts at enabling the BP rescue, BP rewarded Feinberg. 2 The appearance of Feinberg as the heroic savior in the Gulf oil calamity was, in no small measure, a consequence of a persona whose reputation has indeed assumed mythic proportions in the public consciousness.3 As is well known, Feinberg served as the special master administering the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund (the "Fund") in the aftermath of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001.4 As is equally well known, Feinberg has also had an extended career serving as a mediator, special master, settlement negotiator, claims administrator, and more recently, as President Barack Obama's Wall Street executive compensation czar.5 The selection of Feinberg to administer the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) immediately commanded comparison to the September 1 Ith Victim Compensation Fund. Indeed, Feinberg 2. By the author's somewhat inexpert count, Feinberg might well be performing approximately his seventh Herculean labor, with his preceding feats consisting of his participation as a special master in: (1) negotiating the Agent Orange class action settlement, (2) as a trustee charged with disbursing Dalkon Shield settlement payments, (3) assisting Judge Jack Weinstein of the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York in the Brooklyn Navy Yard asbestos cases, (4) managing the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, (5) determining Wall Street executive salary compensation under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, (6) supervising the Hokie Spirit Memorial Fund after the Virginia Tech campus shootings, and (7) administering the Gulf Coast Claims Facility. See Terry Carter, The Master ofDisasters:Is It Just Him, or Is Kenneth Feinberg Changing the Course of Mass Tort Resolution?, A.B.A. J., Jan. 2011; Jeff McDermott, Kenneth R. Feinberg:A Profile in Public Service, FED. LAW., May 2008, at 38. 3. See Steven Brill, What's a Bailed-Out Banker Really Worth?, N.Y. TIMES MAG., Jan. 2010, at 32 (profile of Feinberg's role as executive pay czar under the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program); Carter, supra note 2, at 33; Kimberley A. Strassel, Mr. Fairness:The Pay Czar, BP Claims Administrator,and 9/11 Victims Fund Manager Talks About How He Makes Decisions That Alter Lives, WALL ST. J., Aug. 7, 2010, at All, available at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240 52748703309704575413404274531476.html (comparing Feinberg to King Solomon). 4. See KENNETH R. FEINBERG ET AL., FINAL REPORT OF THE SPECIAL MASTER FOR THE SEPTEMBER 11TH VICTIM COMPENSATION FUND OF 2001, VOLUME 1 (2004), availableat http://www.usdoj.gov/final-report.pdf 5. Janet Cooper Alexander, Procedural Design and Terror Victim Compensation, 53 DEPAUL L. REv. 627, 667 (2003); Martha Chamallas, The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund: Rethinking the Damages Element in Injury Law, 71 TENN. L. REV. 51, 56 (2003); Charles J. Faruki, Book Review, FED. LAW., Oct. 2005, at 52 (reviewing KENNETH R. FEINBERG, WHAT Is LIFE WORTH? THE UNPRECEDENTED EFFORT TO COMPENSATE THE VICTIMS OF 9/11 (2005)); McDermott, supra note 2; Strassel, supra note 3. 2011] PROMETHEUS UNBOUND 821 himself announced that in administering the GCCF, he would be drawing on his vast knowledge and experience in administering the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund.6 Many of Feinberg's initial initiatives-such as town hall meetings and outreach programs to Gulf fishermen and other claimants-duplicated techniques that Feinberg had developed during his supervision of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. But, the BP Gulf Coast Claims Facility-apart from its superficial designation as a compensation fund-bears little resemblance to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. Although these two "fund" mechanisms have in common the same all-powerful administrator, the two funds are entirely unlike one another. This comparison bears scrutiny and debate for several compelling reasons. First, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was widely acknowledged as a sui generis, one-time endeavor to compensate victims of a national terrorist disaster.8 Indeed, special 6. See Strassel, supra note 3. 7. See Kenneth Feinberg, Transparency and Civil Justice: The Internal and External Value ofSunlight, 58 DEPAuL L. REv. 473 (2003); FeinbergSays BP Fund Will Be Generous, Better than Lawsuits, BUS. WK. (July 15, 2010), http:// businessweek.com/news/2010-07-15/feinberg-says-bp-fund-will-be-generous-better- than-lawsuits.html [hereinafter BP Fund Will Be Generous] (local meeting in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana); Wendy Kaufman, Feinberg Vows Quick Response on Gulf Oil Spill Claims, NPR (Aug. 19, 2010), http://www.npr.org/templates/story/ story.php?storyld=129293800 (Feinberg meeting in Houma, Louisiana). 8. See, e.g., FEINBERG ET AL., supra note 4, at 83-84; Robert M. Ackerman, The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund: An Effective Administrative Response to National Tragedy, 10 HARV. NEGOT. L. REV. 135, 205 (2005) ("Because the Fund is sui generis, it is unlikely to have a profound impact on developments in the law of torts."); Chamallas, supra note 5, at 53 ("Perhaps the most repeated observation made about the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, like the horrible events which brought it into being, is that it is unique and has no close parallel in the history of United States injury and compensation law."); Robert S. Peck, The Victim Compensation Fund: Born from a Unique Confluence ofEvents Not Likely to Be Duplicated, 53 DEPAUL L. REv. 209 (2003) (comparing the World Trade Center events to the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941); Robert L. Rabin, The September llth Victim Compensation Fund: A Circumscribed Response or an Auspicious Model?, 53 DEPAuL L. REv. 769, 771 (2003); Robert L. Rabin & Stephen D. Sugarman, The Case for Specially Compensating the Victims of TerroristActs: An Assessment, 35 HOFSTRA L. REv. 901, 907 (2007) ("9/11 was the quintessential once-in-a-lifetime disaster."); Erin G. Holt, Note, The September 11th Victim Compensation Fund: Legislative Justice Sui Generis, 59 N.Y.U. ANN. SuRv. AM. L. 513, 535 (2004). But see Michele Landis Dauber, The War of 1812, September 11th, and the Politics of Compensation, 53 DEPAUL L. REV. 289 (2003) (arguing that the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund was not unprecedented; the federal government historically has been involved in 822 LOUISIANA LAW RE VIEW [Vol. 71 master Feinberg repeatedly stressed in numerous speeches and writings that the Fund was neither a model for tort reform, nor a model for any future terrorist or other disaster.9 Feinberg was fairly and consistently insistent that the Fund was not a model for anything.10 And many, if not most, academic commentators agreed with this assessment." And yet, the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, 12 in its implementation and desip, is now touted as the model for the Gulf Coast Claims Facility.
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