Exxon Ordered to Pay Interest on Valdez Spill Award
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday that Exxon will have to pay back-interest on the $507 million punitive award they were ordered to pay the people of Alaska. The $500 million award would nearly double the ruling from June 2008, which would presumably go some way toward healing the pain of the environmental devastation and economic and social ruin of the spill.
Of course, the U.S. Supreme Court could (and probably will) reduce the amount Exxon will have to pay, so don’t go filling those party balloons just yet.
Exxon Mobil Corp. was ordered Monday to pay about $500 million in interest on punitive damages for the Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, nearly doubling the payout to Alaska Natives, fishermen, business owners and others harmed by the 1989 disaster.
The ruling was issued by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
In June 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court set punitive damages at $507.5 million. But two months later, the high court declined to decide whether Exxon Mobil must pay interest on the punitive damages awarded in the nation’s worst oil spill and instead sent it back to the appeals court.
Monday’s decision would double the average payout of about $15,000 for the nearly 33,000 claimants.
“We’re just happy that we’ve cleared another hurdle, and hopefully we can get the case tied up as soon as possible,” Stanford University law professor Jeffrey Fisher, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told The Associated Press on Monday. “What we want more than anything now is just to bring this case to a close.”
Exxon could appeal the decision on the interest payments to the Supreme Court. A spokesman for Exxon told the AP in an e-mail that the company would comment after the decision has been reviewed.
Photo: Riki Ott
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September 16th, 2009 at 6:23 am
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