(Reuters) - A divided U.S. appeals court on Monday rejected BP Plc's appeal of a ruling that allowed businesses to recover money over the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, even if they could not trace their economic losses to the disaster.
By a 2-1 vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans upheld a December 24 ruling by U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier in New Orleans.
It also said an injunction preventing payments on so-called business economic loss claims should be lifted.
Barbier had ruled that BP (BP..LO)would have to live with its earlier interpretation of a multi-billion dollar settlement agreement over the spill in which certain businesses claiming losses were presumed to have suffered harm.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York. Editing by Andre Grenon)
