BP settles multiple lawsuits, but litigation far from over.
BP has settled four civil lawsuits filed by contractors who were injured on March 23, 2005, when an explosion killed 15 workers and injured 180 at the company’s Texas City, Texas, refinery, abruptly
ending the first civil trial stemming from the blast.
Details of the settlement were not disclosed, but an attorney who represented the four plaintiffs said the amount was fair for what his clients have gone through. BP declined to comment on the specifics of the deal, the Associated Press reported.
More than 1,600 other suits have been settled and about 1,200 are pending.
The blast was the deadliest in the nation’s gas and chemical industry since an explosion at an Arco Chemical Co. plant in nearby Channelview, Texas killed 17 people in 1990.
