Class action settlement sums reached new highs last year, with the ten largest agreements totalling almost $1 billion, almost half of which was secured by one plaintiff law firm.
In one of the year’s biggest class action settlements, PTTEP Australasia has agreed to pay $192.5 million to settle a representative action over a 2009 oil spill that affected 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers.
PTTEP Australasia has settled a class action over one of Australia’s largest oil spills, more than a year after a judge ruled that the oil exploration company breached its duty of care to 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers and damaged their livelihoods.
Oil exploration company PTTEP has argued 15,000 Indonesian seaweed farmers who brought a class action alleging their crops were damaged after an oil spill in the Timor Sea will need to individually persuade the court to allow their claims out of time.
Oil exploration company PTTEP has appealed a judge’s findings that oil that gushed from one of its wells in the Timor Sea in 2009 reached the coasts of Indonesian islands and damaged the crops of local seaweed farmers.
A judge overseeing a class action against the Australian arm of Thai state owned oil giant PTT has rejected attempts to limit the claimed damages from one of Australia’s largest oil spills, saying the disaster was “widespread” across Indonesian islands in the Timor Sea.