The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee passed by voice vote June 8 a bill to amend three maritime laws to allow for liability claims arising from deaths or injuries in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, in which 11 workers died after explosions on a floating rig operated by BP Pic. The Deepwater Horizon Survivors' Fairness Act (S. 183), introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), chairman of the committee, would amend the Shipowners' Liability Act of 1851 to specify that the general limitation on liability, at 46 U.S.C. Section 30505, does not apply to a claim for personal injury or wrongful death arising from the April 20, 2010, blowout and explosion of the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon.
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