Court to Hear Suit Against Deepwater Horizon Spill Activists
Source: Associated Press
Court to Hear Suit Against Deepwater Horizon Spill Activists
By DENISE LAVOIE, AP LEGAL AFFAIRS WRITER BOSTON — Oct 2, 2016, 4:32 PM ET
When Karen Savage and Cherri Foytlin wrote an article about the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill of 2010, they thought it might get a few moments of attention and then fade away.
More than three years later, Savage and Foytlin are still defending their article after being sued by a scientific consulting company. The battle is headed to the highest court in Massachusetts. Arguments are scheduled for Friday, a week after "Deepwater Horizon," a film starring Mark Wahlberg, opens in theaters.
Their 2013 article, which appeared in The Huffington Post, questioned the independence of ChemRisk, a firm that published a study that found that the Gulf disaster did not expose cleanup workers to harmful levels of several airborne chemical compounds released by the explosion.
Savage and Foytlin alleged in the article that ChemRisk had strong ties to the oil industry and accused the company of "using questionable ethics to help their clients avoid legal responsibility for their actions."
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The case is expected to explore the scope of a Massachusetts law aimed at discouraging lawsuits intended to silence people who speak out on issues of public interest. Savage and Foytlin claim ChemRisk's lawsuit falls into that category of litigation, known as Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation.
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Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/court-hear-suit-deepwater-horizon-spill-activists-42510088