ExxonMobil seeking reduced punitive damage award in Valdez case

by The Associated Press

Exxon Mobil Corp. asked a federal district court in Anchorage to reduce a $5 billion punitive damage award levied against it resulting from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill to no more than $40 million.

ExxonMobil spokesman Tom Cirigliano said June 12 that the company is following up on a decision by a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last November.

The appeals court panel found that the $5 billion awarded by an Anchorage jury in 1994 to commercial fishermen, Alaska Natives, property owners and others harmed by the spill was excessive. It ordered the Anchorage court to reduce the award.

ExxonMobil said that the punitive damages should be $25 million, the amount of the fine imposed by the government, and shouldn’t exceed $40 million, or twice the compensatory damages awarded to private plaintiffs.

ExxonMobil said it paid $300 million to more than 11,000 Alaskans and businesses soon after the spill. It also paid $2.2 billion on the cleanup from 1989 to 1992, when the state and the Coast Guard declared it was complete and $1 billion in settlements with the state of Alaska and the federal government.