Court: BP Employees Can't Be Charged Under Seaman's Manslaughter Law

 

A federal court ruled on Wednesday that BP well site leaders on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig cannot be charged with seaman's manslaughter in the deaths of eleven workers that died during the 2010 rig explosion because they were not seamen.

 

A federal grand jury in Louisiana had indicted Robert Kaluza and Donald Vidrine, the top ranking BP employees on the rig, with 23 counts, including 11 counts of seaman's manslaughter. The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana had previously granted the men's motion to dismiss the charges on the grounds that they weren't seaman under the definition of the 1838 seaman's manslaughter law. On Wednesday, the court of appeals affirmed the lower court's decision.

 

In a 33-page opinion, the three-member United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the 1838 statute covers "only those persons responsible for the 'marine operations, maintenance, or navigation of the vessel.' "

 

Seaman's manslaughter has a lower threshold for guilt then standard manslaughter laws, requiring only negligence that results in death. The groups that can be charged with seaman's manslaughter include "every captain, engineer, pilot, or other person employed on any steamboat or vessel," "every owner charterer, inspector or other public official" and vessel owners and executive officers of a corporation operating the vessel that is "actually charged with the control and management of the operation, equipment, or navigation of such steamboat or vessel."

 

The court noted that the law had never been applied to employees on a drilling rig.