Buccaneers seek “millions of dollars” in compensation from Deepwater Horizon oil spill

[Captain Fear]

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This is not an April Fool’s Day joke. This is not an April Fool’s Day joke.

We repeat: This is not an April Fool’s Day joke.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are seeking “millions of dollars” in compensation from BP Exploration & Production for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

The Buccaneers’ effort to recover these significant amounts came to light in a court order filed Friday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The court order denies an effort by the Buccaneers to seal the courtroom for oral arguments regarding an appeal of whatever amount the Bucs did or didn’t receive from a lower court.

In ruling against the team, the appeals court made it clear that the team’s efforts to ensure secrecy go well beyond the boundaries of the role of the inherently public court system. The Buccaneers argued that, among other things, “private spite” on the part of BP, the promotion of “public scandal,” and harm to the team’s “competitive standing.”

The Buccaneers also claim that they have an “expectation of secrecy” in the process of having their claim approved and paid. The court rejected that approach by pointing again to the public nature of the judicial system, and by chiding the Buccaneers for trying so hard to conceal information from public view.

“The court will leave it to others to guess why the team is so concerned about public disclosure of its claim when numerous other BP claimants in the appeals inundating our court are not,” Judge Gregg J. Costa writes in the five-page order. “Just three months into this year, at least ten Deepwater Horizon decisions naming the claimants have issued. Among them is one from another of Tampa Bay’s professional sports franchises, the NHL’s Lightning. . . . The court is unable to discern any reason for keeping secret the oil-spill claim of a football team when the claim of a hockey team (and of course those of numerous other businesses) is a public matter.”

Thus, the court concluded that the Buccaneers “should not able to benefit from this public resource while treating it like a private tribunal when there is no good reason to do so,” adding that “the public will be able to access the courtroom it pays for.”

Contacted for comment on the situation, the Buccaneers provided this statement to PFT: “As per our usual team policy, we do not comment regarding ongoing litigation matters.”

Although the Buccaneers apparently will be able to keep their financial information secret, the outcome won’t be. At some point, the amount to be paid by BP to the Buccaneers will be known, along with the reasoning for doing so.