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(Corrects headline to clarify company on trial not BPexecutives)
By Kristen Hays
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 25 (Reuters) - People, businesses andgovernments harmed in the biggest oil spill in U.S. history gottheir day in court on Monday, blaming BP executives for theDeepwater Horizon disaster that killed 11 rig workers andspilled millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in2010.
"The primary fault for this disaster lies with BP,"Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Underhill said at the start of thetrial over legal culpability for the disaster that killed 11 oilworkers and sent more than 4 million barrels of oil into theGulf. The trial at the federal district court in New Orleanswill be overseen by Judge Carl Barbier with no jury.
Lawyers for other plaintiffs also slammed executives for BPPlc, as did an attorney for one of BP's codefendants. BPlawyers were scheduled to speak later in the afternoon, and mustshow that the company's mistakes do not meet the legaldefinition of gross negligence required for the highest amountof damages. BP has already spent or committed $37 billion oncleanup, restoration, payouts, settlements and fines.
Potential liabilities stretch into the tens of billions ofdollars if Barbier determines BP or the other defendants weregrossly negligent. Oil came ashore from Texas to Florida,threatening livelihoods and state economies dependent on seafoodand tourism, so the list of plaintiffs is long.
Most observers still expect the case to be settled beforethe trial results in a verdict.
Underhill said that less than an hour before BP'slong-troublesome Macondo well ruptured and caused an explosion,BP's top well site leader on the rig called an engineer inHouston to discuss a critical pressure test that indicatedproblems.
Company officials did not stop the operation and "11 soulshad 47 minutes to live the rest of their lives," Underhill saidin his opening arguments after a weekend of talks produced nolast-minute settlement.
Underhill said the accident could have been avoided ifonshore engineer Mark Hafle and well site leader Don Vidrine onthe rig had done their jobs. Vidrine also faces criminal chargesin the disaster, as does Robert Kaluza, the otherhighest-ranking supervisor aboard the rig before the disaster.
Jim Roy, an attorney for other plaintiffs suing well ownerBP Plc, rig owner Transocean Ltd, cement servicesprovider Halliburton Co and others, said BP executivesat the highest level felt pressure to push output to the limit.
"Production over protection. Profits over safety," said Roy,who represents plaintiffs who did not take part in an $8.5billion settlement BP struck last year.
Roy also said Transocean opened the door to disaster withpoor staff training and poor maintenance of seabed equipment,while Halliburton made substandard cement to plug the well.
Transocean's lawyer Brad Brian also came out swingingagainst BP, saying rig workers trusted the oil company and diedbetrayed.
Brian said the inaction following the phone call showedHafle and Vidrine did what they and others at BP had been doingfor two months in the face of a risky well: "They did nothing."
He said Hafle spoke for eight minutes with Vidrine,discussed drillpipe pressure and improper alignment of acritical hose, hung up, "and then stayed safely onshore."
ASSESSING BLAME
Barbier, the judge overseeing the trial, has deep roots inthe Gulf Coast. Born in New Orleans in 1944, he attendedSoutheastern Louisiana University and Loyola University NewOrleans School of Law. He was a lawyer in private practice formany years in New Orleans before President Bill Clinton tappedhim for the federal bench in 1998.
The judge, who has also handled several high-profile casesstemming from Hurricane Katrina, postponed the trial date bymore than a month. An army of media have descended on NewOrleans to cover the trial, and the delay avoided a clash withthe NFL Super Bowl in New Orleans on Feb. 3 or the city's MardiGras festival on Feb. 12.
The trial's first phase focuses on how much each company isto blame and the degree of negligence.
"BP is in a very tight bind," said Blaine LeCesne, aprofessor at Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans."I never thought that they intended to try this case and reallycannot afford to do so because the exposure is too potentiallycatastrophic."
Luther Strange, Alabama's attorney general, said he wouldseek to prove that BP, Transocean, Halliburton all acted with"gross negligence and willful misconduct."
"For that reason, we will ask the court at the end of thistrial to rule that all three - BP, Transocean, and Halliburton -are liable for punitive damages to the state of Alabama,"Strange said.
Simple negligence involves mistakes. Gross negligenceinvolves reckless or willful disregard for human andenvironmental safety and is difficult to prove, experts say.
Those suing the companies say BP was grossly negligent,which the company denies.
"Less than 30 miles from the door of this courthouse, over212 miles of Louisiana coast are being polluted and continue tobe oiled. We continue to be adversely affected," LouisianaAttorney General Buddy Caldwell told the judge on Monday. "Theyacted in a grossly negligent manner."
Any punitive damages against BP would come on top of thepotentially billions in fines under the Clean Water Act. Thepayout by BP so far included a record $4.5 billion in penalties,and a guilty plea to 14 criminal counts to resolve charges fromthe Justice Department and civil claims from the U.S. Securitiesand Exchange Commission.
BP has sold assets to help cover its spill-related costs,including its older, smaller Gulf of Mexico operations.
The second phase of the trial, expected to start inSeptember, will focus on the flow rate of the oil that spewedfrom the well. The third phase in 2014 will consider damages. (Reporting by Kristen Hays, with writing by Braden Reddall;editing by Patricia Kranz, John Wallace and David Gregorio)
