Court orders Exxon to pay $507.5 mln for 1989 spill

Yahoo News 16 Jun 09;

WASHINGTON (AFP) – A US federal appeals court on Monday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay 507.5 million dollars in punitive damages plus interest for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska.

The ruling by the ninth US Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California was consistent with the figure suggested by the Supreme Court last year. It also awarded plaintiffs 5.9 percent interest starting from the date of the original trial judgment in September 1996.

The cumulative amount of the interest payments could nearly double the 507.5-million-dollar fine.

But the figure is still a small fraction of the five billion dollars in damages Alaska natives, fishermen, business owners and others had originally been awarded by a jury in 1996. That amount was later reduced following appeals by Exxon, which is based in Irving, Texas.

"In this case, neither side is a clear winner," the court said in its ruling.

"The defendant owes the plaintiffs 507.5 million dollars in punitives -- according to the counsel at oral argument the fourth largest punitive damages award ever granted. Yet that award represents a reduction by 90 percent of the original five billion dollars."

The appeals court also ordered that the parties pay for their own attorney fees and court costs, adding another 70 million dollars in fees for the oil giant.

The March 1989 oil spill from an Exxon Valdez supertanker poured 50,000 tonnes of oil into Prince William Sound, on Alaska's south coast.

Exxon Mobil spent nearly 3.4 billion dollars to clean up the spill, the worst in US history, as well as to put an end to criminal proceedings and compensate fishermen and other business owners.

Court orders $507.5 million damages in Exxon Valdez spill
Reuters 15 Jun 09;

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Monday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp to pay $507.5 million in punitive damages stemming from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, plus 5.9 percent interest running from the 1996 trial judgment, the opinion said.

The amount is a fraction of the $5 billion in punitive damages originally awarded to fishermen, Alaska natives, business owners and other litigants by a jury in 1996, and equals the compensatory damages agreed to in a subsequent settlement, the opinion said.

The opinion issued on Monday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals set the punitive damages figure, and determined the date from which the interest would run, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the maximum ratio of punitive to compensatory damages is 1:1 under maritime law.

In a split decision, the appeals court ordered each party to bear its own attorney fees and court costs.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs could not be reached immediately for comment. An Exxon spokesman had no immediate comment.

The oil spill from the Exxon Valdez supertanker in 1989 was the worst in the nation's history, blackening more than 1,200 miles of Alaska's coastline.

The clean-up alone cost around $2.5 billion.

The case is In Re: The Exxon Valdez, No. 04-35182, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

(Reporting by Gina Keating in Los Angeles; Editing by Gary Hill)