On February 26, 2016, after a two-week trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, a jury returned a $9.04 million verdict in favor of the firm’s client, Shell Offshore Inc. Keith Jarrett, Joe Giarrusso, and R.J. Marse represented Shell.
The case involved a marine collision in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 70 miles offshore. Shell was in the midst of drilling operations on the Transocean rig Deepwater Nautilus, when one of the rig’s mooring lines was cut by a vessel towing a submerged object thousands of feet underwater. As a result, Shell had to suspend drilling operations for nearly two weeks. Shell proved that it was entitled to recover its costs for the time it was unable to drill, and the jury determined Shell and Transocean were 0% at fault for the incident.