Bickford
Deepwater Horizon widow Natalie Roshto, who sued rig owner Transocean and BP a day after the explosion, has settled her claims.
On June 14, she moved to dismiss Transocean, BP, and others she had added to the suit.
Her lawyer, Scott Bickford of New Orleans, wrote that she amicably and fully compromised all matters arising out of the death of Shane Roshto.
He wrote that chancery court in Amite County, Miss., with jurisdiction over the estate, approved the settlement.
Shane Roshto worked for Transocean, on assignment at Deepwater Horizon.
The rig exploded on April 20, 2010, and Natalie Roshto sued in U.S. district court on
April 21.
The complaint stated that "his body has not yet been located."
Bickford amended it five days later to sue two more Transocean entities, another BP entity, and cement contractor Halliburton.
He wrote that the search for Shane Roshto had been called off.
Bickford pressed BP for evidence, and BP responded that it needed to take actions that would destroy or modify some items.
At a hearing, U.S. District Judge Jay C. Zainey ordered BP to keep a log of such actions and reasons for them.
"Mr. Bickford, BP will eventually provide you through discovery with the actions that it has taken, but to do so as quickly as you would like, I believe, could in fact hinder the recovery effort," Zainey said.
"This court is not going to interfere with anything that the United States Coast Guard is doing.
"I think any further action by the court would be more of a hindrance than assistance in the protection of the rights of the plaintiff."
Nine days later, the court reassigned the case to District Judge Eldon Fallon.
Seven days after that, the court reassigned the case to District Judge Carl Barbier.
He later took charge of oil spill damage suits from many federal courts, by appointment of the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multi District Litigation.
Although he ruled last year that parties would plead injury and death cases individually, no pleadings appear on the docket for Roshto's case.
Her motion to dismiss listed 22 defendants.