BP took out ads in national newspapers blasting the payouts as unfair and launched a legal fight through the appeals court system. The Supreme Court, in an unsigned order without explanation, declined Monday to review lower court rulings that went against BP.

Most recently, a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had denied BP's claim 2-1 in March. Federal Judge Leslie Southwick wrote at the time that BP needs to live with the settlement it signed, adding that "there is nothing fundamentally unreasonable about what BP accepted but now wished it had not."

Attorney Joe Rice, a lead negotiator for the plaintiffs against BP, said Monday that BP's "cruel antics" in the courts had muddied the process of getting payments out.