(Bloomberg) — BP Plc was barred by a U.S. judge from recoveringhundreds of millions of dollars it claims to have overpaid somevictims for economic losses from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oilspill.

BP had sought to claw back millions of dollars after the courtrevised the method for calculating the damages.

U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans rejected thatbid, quoting from language of a release people had to sign toreceive payment under the settlement.

BP told claimants, “If you sign this release, that's it, it'sover for you. It doesn't matter if the law changes or not, or ifthe interpretation of the settlement terms changes for better orworse,” Barbier said. “I don't know how you get around it.”

The company's attempt to recover the money was “classichair-splitting,” Barbier ruled. “The only conclusion is that thislanguage bars BP from any attempt at restitution.”

BP sought the return of overpayments on 793 claims it was forcedto pay under a now-rejected formula that calculated losses withoutrequiring specific matching of revenue and expenses. BP attributed$185 million in overpayments to just 208 of these claimants, KevinDowney, a lawyer for the London-based company, told Barbier.

BP will appeal today's decision, Geoff Morrell, a companyspokesman, said in an e-mailed statement.

'Windfalls' Upheld

“No one disputes that the claimants whose windfalls the courthas now upheld have been paid money they didn't deserve for lossesthey didn't suffer,” Morrell said. BP's request for the return ofthat money “was an attempt to reach the only fair outcome,” hesaid.

Today's ruling was BP's second courtroom loss in less than amonth. Barbier, who is in charge of thousands of consolidatedoil-spill claims, ruled on Sept. 4 that BP acted with grossnegligence in drilling the Macondo well off the Louisiana coast,leading to the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon drilling rigthat killed 11 and caused the worst offshore spill in U.S.history.

That ruling exposes BP to as much as $18 billion in U.S.water-pollution fines, which Barbier has yet to assess. BP has setaside $43 billion to cover all costs of the spill and has alreadypaid more than $28 billion in spill response, cleanup costs anddamages.

Thousands Underpaid

Joe Rice, one of the victims' lawyers who negotiated thesettlement with BP, said Barbier upheld the settlement and releaseas they were written. “BP agreed to this and they wanted thesepayments to be final,” he said in an interview after court. “Weallege that thousands of people were underpaid by BP, but theydon't want us opening those back up.”

Barbier didn't immediately rule today on a separate request byvictims' lawyers to automatically compensate all cleanup workersand coastal residents injured during the spill under BP'ssettlement rather than require them to sue the company forhelp.

Workers who were diagnosed with certain ailments after April2012 contend the company is trying to save as much as $1.2 billionby altering terms of the medical-benefits part of the globalsettlement with most private party plaintiffs BP reached two yearsago. The estimated value of the economic and environmental lossescovered by that agreement is $9.2 billion.

Proving Injury

The workers' lawyers asked Barbier to reverse his earlier rulingthat the settlement didn't automatically cover them if theycouldn't provide specific diagnostic test results obtained beforethe deal was approved. The claims administrator for the medicalbenefits settlement had earlier decided in BP's favor.

“The entire point of the settlement was to efficientlycompensate large numbers of existing exposure injuries and to bringthem to a close,” Steve Herman, a plaintiffs' lawyer, said in acourt filing.

BP's lawyers told Barbier today the company hasn't revised anysettlement terms. All individuals with exposure-related injuriesdiagnosed after the April 2012 cutoff date must file workers'compensation claims or sue BP under provisions reserved for latentinjuries, such as cancer, which might develop years after someonecame in contact with the spill, they said.

Victims' lawyers estimate as many as 20,000 people are entitledto automatic payments of as much as $60,700 because of chronic eye,skin and respiratory ailments they developed within three days ofbeing exposed to crude oil and dispersants. Now, more than 90percent of them will have to sue instead of being compensatedthrough the settlement, their lawyers said.

'Rather Strange'

“It's rather strange that a court would approve a classsettlement that really doesn't settle thousands of claims, thatrequires them to file another lawsuit,” Barbier told lawyers attoday's hearing. He said it seemed unfair to exclude injuredcleanup workers from automatic compensation “because they weren'tformally diagnosed and didn't have all the right tests at the righttime.”

Kevin Hodges, another BP lawyer, told Barbier it was implausibleto think thousands of injured workers would wait more than twoyears to see a doctor for painful exposure symptoms, many of whichwould require treatment at an emergency room.

Barbier countered that one-third of Louisiana residents, about1.5 million people, lack health insurance. “So I don't know you canjust assume” that all injured workers went to doctors or got therequired medical tests performed in a timely manner, he said.

The April 2010 Macondo well blowout and spill fouled Gulffisheries and more than a thousand miles of coastline. The accidentled to thousands of lawsuits against BP and its contractors:Transocean Ltd., owner of the drilling rig that burned and sank,and Halliburton Co., which provided cementing services.

The case is In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig Deepwater Horizon inthe Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, MDL-2179, U.S. DistrictCourt, Eastern District of Louisiana (New Orleans).

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