John Maas spent years purchasing and outfitting a 17-foot aluminum boat known as the Superskiff 1 so he could take people fishing for sea trout and flounder in the Gulf of Mexico.

But before the Mississippi captain could undertake his first charter trip in 2010, the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded 120 miles (193 kilometers) to the south, killing 11 workers and spewing millions of gallons of oil into the sea.

BP Defeated Thousands Of Suits By Sick Gulf Spill Cleanup Workers. But Not One By A Boat Captain

Maas’ life, like that of many others on the Gulf Coast, was affected by the calamity. When oil fouled the water, he stopped fishing and used his boat to help clean it up. It was unpleasant working in sweltering, humid weather in oily water near the chemical dispersion Corexit, which was used in large quantities to break up oil.

Maas reported that the Corexit smelled like burning brake oil and caused his eyes to weep and his skin to burn. “You were coughing and something like that. In an interview, he described it as being similar to tear gas.

Four years later, he was diagnosed with chemical-induced asthma. Today, the former Marine, who never smoked and was always in shape, exercising with his dog on the beach and keeping up with fishermen 15 years younger, gets winded just going around his deck at home.

BP received criminal fines for the catastrophe and would eventually spend billions of dollars to resolve claims for economic harm and environmental destruction. However, after more than a decade of litigation following the greatest offshore US oil spill, Maas may be the only person to receive a BP compensation for his injuries through an individual case. Thousands of identical cases have been dismissed without ever reaching a jury.

Maas triumphed where more than 99% failed due to his intelligence, stubbornness, and, ultimately, luck. His story exemplifies how difficult it is for workers who say they were sickened by the spill to secure adequate compensation.

Maas collaborated with four different law firms and even handled the matter on his own for months, writing motions longhand on white legal pads and mailing them by US mail.

According to a private copy obtained to The Associated Press, BP eventually agreed to pay Maas $110,000 12 years after the leak occurred. The corporation denied responsibility for his illness. BP declined to comment on the story, citing ongoing litigation.

“I know this is going to shorten my life tremendously,” Maas, 61, said of his sickness. “And I know I’m going to have continued issues related to the spill.”

At every turn, Maas narrowly averted the fates of others.

He initially hired The Nations Law Firm, based in Houston, but dismissed them in 2016 after legal bills reduced his $1,300 payout from a class-action settlement between BP and cleanup workers’ attorneys.

After two miserable years with another law company that was unable to file his federal lawsuit due to paperwork issues, Maas recruited a Miami-based firm that filed one in Louisiana in 2020.

They very instantly butted heads. According to Maas, the firm handed him a document stating that his eyes were sprayed with contaminated water as he was picking up tar balls.

“This was a scripted thing for the dudes who walked down the beach in the (protective) suits with a little shovel, and a broom, and a bag,” he went on to say. “I was a master boat captain.”

Maas didn’t like the error. He also wanted his case heard in Tennessee, where he had relocated. This time, the law firm dropped Maas.

BP Defeated Thousands Of Suits By Sick Gulf Spill Cleanup Workers. But Not One By A Boat Captain

Maas then pursued his case against BP on his own for nine months, successfully moving it to Tennessee.

“I think most people would be very hesitant on writing their own motions to court, which I was, but I’m dumb enough not to even be embarrassed by spelling things wrong and and not having it set up right,” he went on to say.

In late 2020, Maas hired Tennessee attorney Ken Burger. Initially hesitant, Burger decided to become engaged after seeing spill worker injury litigation.

“The more I looked at it, the madder I got,” he recounted. “My attitude of mind was, I don’t care if I don’t make a dime out of this. “They (BP) are going to answer my questions.”

As with hundreds of similar complaints, BP attempted to dismiss Maas’ by claiming he could not prove the exact level and duration of his exposure to oil and Corexit.

However, Maas had two things going for him.

The court first heard expert testimony from Corexit researcher Dr. Veena Antony, a professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the University of Alabama, who stated that there is no safe dose of the oil dispersion to breath. Maas and his deckhand said that they were “crop dusted” with Corexit and inhaled lungsful.

The second advantage was that the federal court in Tennessee who heard his case was less conservative than those in the Gulf States when it came to establishing a link between harmful chemical exposure and sickness.

BP Defeated Thousands Of Suits By Sick Gulf Spill Cleanup Workers. But Not One By A Boat Captain

“Mr. Maas does not have to establish he was exposed to a specific dose of Corexit” for his case to proceed, U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. stated in 2021, noting Maas’ doctor indicated the boat captain was exposed regularly for a lengthy period of time.

After the judge ordered mediation, BP agreed.

BP never admitted any fault, and Maas’ attorney carefully frames the outcome: “Unlike cases from New Orleans to Pensacola to Galveston to Tampa… we were able to resolve Captain Maas’ case in a manner agreeable to the parties.”

Since Maas’ case, the lawyer stated that numerous spill workers have begged him to take theirs, but he has refused. “I don’t think any of these cases are winnable,” he told reporters.

And his Corexit expert witness says she is hesitant to testify in any future difficult cleanup lawsuits.

“As a physician, I feel terrible for these people,” he remarked. “But… I am not a lawyer. I wish I was in certain ways; I’d fight for them.”

SOURCE – (AP)

Netflix added 9.3 million subscribers to begin the year, and its profit increased as a result of its still-emerging push into advertising, but investors were taken off surprise by a shift that will make tracking the video streaming service’s future development more difficult.

The performance released Thursday showed that Netflix is still building on its momentum from last year, when a crackdown on free-loading viewers using shared passwords and the introduction of a low-cost option with advertisements rekindled its growth after a post-pandemic lull.

Netflix Now Has Nearly 270 Million Subscribers After Another Strong Showing To Begin 2024

Netflix’s strategy resulted in 30 million new customers last year, the second greatest annual gain in the service’s history.

Netflix’s increases from January to March more than doubled the 1.8 million customers added at the same time last year, and were nearly three times higher than analysts expected. The Los Gatos, California-based corporation finished March with almost 270 million global customers, including approximately 83 million in its largest market, the United States and Canada.

Netflix’s stock price has more than doubled since the end of 2022, as investors increasingly see it as the clear winner in a tough streaming battle with Apple, Amazon, Walt Disney Co., and Warner Bros. Discovery.

But Netflix stunned investors by announcing in a shareholder letter that it will no longer provide quarterly updates on member totals beginning next year, making it more difficult to watch the video streaming service’s growth — or shrinkage. Since going public 22 years ago, the corporation has consistently reported quarterly subscriber totals.

Netflix’s shares fell more than 5% in extended trading despite a great financial performance.

In a video chat with analysts, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters stated that management believes the company’s financial growth has become more important to monitor than quarterly variations in subscriber numbers.

Netflix Now Has Nearly 270 Million Subscribers After Another Strong Showing To Begin 2024

“We think this is a better approach that reflects the evolution of the business,” Peters went on to say.

The corporation still plans to provide annual updates on total subscribers. Raj Venkatesan, a business administration professor at the University of Virginia who researches the video streaming market, claims that Netflix is attempting to persuade investors to pay attention to long-term trends rather than three-month increments, which are susceptible to short-term factors like programming changes and household budgetary pressures that result in sporadic cancellations.

Now that Netflix has been tightening down on password sharing for more than a year, management is likely to understand it has gained the majority of the subscriber gains from those measures and that maintaining that pace would be more challenging, according to eMarketer analyst Ross Benes.

“They are quitting while they are ahead by no longer reporting quarterly subscriber numbers,” Benes told me.

Netflix’s increased subscriber growth has coincided with a tighter focus on increasing profit and revenue, which has pushed management to be more frugal in its spending on original programming and to regularly raise subscription fees.

It’s a strategy that helped Netflix earn $2.33 billion, or $5.28 per share, in the most recent quarter, up 79% from the same period previous year. Revenue increased 15% from a year ago to $9.37 billion. FactSet polled analysts, who predicted earnings of $4.52 per share on $9.27 billion in revenue.

Netflix Now Has Nearly 270 Million Subscribers After Another Strong Showing To Begin 2024

Advertising revenues continue to play a minor role in Netflix’s profitability, with BMO Capital Markets analyst Brian Pitz predicting the firm will earn approximately $1.5 billion from advertising streaming on its service this year, with years of steady growth ahead. According to Pitz, the low-cost advertising option is having a significant influence on attracting and retaining users, with 41 million people expected to pay for the commercial format.

SOURCE – (AP)

AUSTIN, Texas – Tesla will ask shareholders to approve the reinstatement of a $56 billion compensation package for CEO Elon Musk, which a Delaware judge rejected earlier this year, and move the electric car manufacturer’s headquarters from Delaware to Texas.

In a statement with federal regulators early Wednesday, the business stated that shareholders will vote on both measures at its annual meeting on June 13.

Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion pay package for Musk rejected by Delaware judge

The Tesla board of directors offered Musk an unprecedented compensation plan that could be worth $55.8 billion over ten years starting in 2018, but Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick ruled in January that Musk is not eligible for it.

Five years ago, a Tesla shareholder lawsuit argued that the pay package should be void because Musk dictated it and forged agreements with directors who weren’t impartial to him.

Musk announced a month after the judge’s decision that he would try to relocate Tesla’s corporate listing to Texas, where he has already relocated the company’s headquarters.

Almost immediately after the judge’s order, Musk moved Neuralink, his privately held brain implant company, from Delaware to Nevada.

Tesla met all of the operational and stock value benchmarks outlined in a 2018 CEO pay package, according to Chairperson Robyn Denholm in a letter to shareholders this week. She also stated that Musk has met the automaker’s growth expectations.

“Because the Delaware Court second-guessed your decision, Elon has not been paid for any of his work for Tesla for the past six years, which has helped to generate significant growth and stockholder value,” Denholm said. “That strikes us — and the many stockholders from whom we already have heard — as fundamentally unfair, and inconsistent with the will of the stockholders who voted for it.”

According to a regulatory filing, Tesla delivered 1.8 million electric vehicles worldwide in 2023. However, the value of its shares has dropped sharply this year as sales of electric vehicles fall.

Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion pay package for Musk rejected by Delaware judge

Future growth is still being determined, and it may be difficult to persuade shareholders to support a large pay package in a market where competition has increased globally, and demand for electric vehicle sales is declining. Shareholders will also be asked to submit a nonbinding advisory vote on future CEO pay.

Tesla’s stock has lost over one-third of its worth this year as dramatic price cuts have yet to attract new purchasers. The business said it shipped 386,810 automobiles from January to March, about 9% fewer than last year.

Musk’s package was valued at more than $55.8 billion at the time of the Delaware court verdict, but the court may have cost the erratic CEO more than $10 billion due to the company’s stock decline this year. According to the report, Musk’s 2018 remuneration totaled $44.9 billion at the close of trading on April 12.

Since last year, Tesla has reduced prices by up to $20,000 on some models. The price decreases caused the prices of used electric vehicles to fall, reducing Tesla’s profit margins.

Tesla announced this week that it would lay off nearly 10% of its workforce, or approximately 14,000 individuals.

Following receipt of a report from a special committee under the direction of one board member, Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, Tesla’s board stated in the filing that it sought shareholder approval of Musk’s 2018 compensation package.

Tesla wants shareholders to reinstate $56 billion pay package for Musk rejected by Delaware judge

The board stated that if a significant vote is cast against future executive pay packages, “we will consider our stockholders’ concerns, and the compensation committee will evaluate whether any actions are necessary to address those concerns.”

Tesla Inc. shares, which fell another 8% this week, were marginally down in trade shortly after Wednesday’s opening bell.

SOURCE – (AP)