Supreme Court Modifies Exxon Punitive Damages for Oil Spill
The nearly-20-year-old oil spill in Alaska’s Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdex supertanker has once again grabbed national headlines, as the Supreme Court stepped in yesterday to change a lower court’s ruling on its penalty of punitive damages for the spill. Originally, the oil giant was responsible for $507 million in compensatory damages to natives of Alaska, landowners and commercial fisherman whose lives and livelihoods were ruined by the 1989 incident, as well as a massive $5 billion penalty in punitive damages.
A California appeals court later reduced the punitive damages in half to $2.5 billion, before yesterday’s decision to match the punitive damages to the compensatory damages at $507 million. Individuals will be compensated at roughly $15,000 each in this new settlement amount.
Justice David Souter, in writing the opinion of the 5-3 majority, stated that a one-to-one ratio is appropriate in maritime cases. His wording left some doubt among legal experts as to whether or not the “one-to-one” ruling is applicable outside maritime law.
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August 28th, 2008 at 8:51 am
“Reduced” the losses to 2.5billion, makes it sound like such a small figure!