The former chief executive of British oil giant British Petroleum won't have to give an extensive, in person deposition in civil litigation stemming from the deadly 2005 explosion at the company's Texas City refinery, the Texas Supreme Court ruled today.While the decision could allow plaintiffs' lawyers to grill John Browne for just one hour by telephone, Brent Coon, a Beaumont attorney who has led blast-related litigation for several years, doubted it will happen because the company can appeal again.
"I'm just pessimistic that the Supreme Court would allow us to get to him," Coon said today. British Petroleum spokesman Neil Chapman said the company was reviewing the decision and informing Browne about it.
"We thank the court for considering the issue," Chapman said without elaboration on whether British Petroleum would oppose a limited deposition.
The court's ruling didn't address the issue of whether a chief executive should be forced to give sworn testimony when such details can be gleaned from lower-ranking executives.
British Petroleum had claimed Browne and chief executives in general shouldn't be bogged down with potentially harassing depositions unless they have actual and pertinent knowledge that plaintiffs can't get from other sources. Exxon Mobil and several oil and chemical industry trade groups filed briefs supporting that stance.
Today's ruling instead focused on an October 2006 order by state District Judge Susan Criss in Galveston, who presides over blast-related litigation, that Browne submit to a multi-hour, in-person deposition.
That decision quashed the limits of a previous agreement between British Petroleum and the plaintiffs that Browne testify for one hour by phone if a deposition by John Manzoni, then BP's head of refining, provided new evidence that Browne had such unique knowledge of the blast that he needed to be questioned directly.
The plaintiffs have long argued that Browne had unique knowledge of budget cuts that diminished staffing and put off upgrades and maintenance that paved the way for the blast, which killed 15 people and injured many more. British Petroleum acknowledges such budget cuts, but disputes a link between them and the blast.
Today's ruling compels Criss to erase her October 2006 order on a longer deposition and enforce the previous agreement that allows for a limited one.
The Supreme Court ruled that Criss lacked sufficient justification to toss aside that previous agreement in part because the plaintiffs didn't formally ask for sanctions.
But the opinion also challenged whether the plaintiffs actually gleaned new evidence of unique blast knowledge on Browne's part from their deposition of Manzoni, which Coon interpreted to mean an effort to take limited testimony of the ex-CEO could be futile.
"It would give British Petroleum the argument that the Supreme Court said the facts in the record don't support going forward even with a one-hour deposition," Coon said.
Still, he said he'll try. Criss likely will hold a hearing on the issue next month.
Browne resigned abruptly in May last year upon admitting that he lied to a British court about the circumstances under which he had met a former companion. Three months later, he joined energy and power private equity firm Riverstone Holdings as a managing director and managing partner of Riverstone Europe.
Source: Houston Chronicle | By KRISTEN HAYS
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