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Appeals court to hear Exxon Valdez case Oral arguments scheduled in January before 9th Circuit Court of Appeals; spill occurred in ’89; jury ordered payment in ‘94 The Associated Press
The long-running Exxon Valdez lawsuit will have another day in court in January.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Jan. 27 in San Francisco will hear arguments over punitive damages from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound.
The court will hear oral arguments about whether plaintiffs should get $4.5 billion plus interest in punitive damages.
Attorney David Oesting said the hearing should be the final argument before the Appeals Court over punitive damages.
Plaintiff Steve Vanek, a Ninilchik commercial fisherman, is not expecting a settlement soon.
“It will be another year or a year and a half before that bloody 9th Circuit makes a decision,” Vanek predicted. “I won’t count on it until I see the check.”
It’s impossible to predict when the Appeals Court will issue a decision, Oesting said. He also expects Exxon to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“I don’t know if the Supreme Court will (choose) to get involved,” Oesting said. Plaintiffs dying Each year fewer fishermen, Native subsistence gatherers and other plaintiffs are still alive to track the court case. Oesting said he believes that around 3,000 of the plaintiffs have died while waiting for the billions in punitive damages a jury first ordered Exxon, now ExxonMobil, to pay in 1994.
More than 30,000 plaintiffs from oiled areas remain, Oesting said.
The Exxon public affairs office referred inquiries to the company’s Web site. The site offers a lengthy defense of the company position.
“Despite complaints by the plaintiffs, which are designed to sway public opinion, ExxonMobil is exercising a fundamental right to appeal these damages, a right to which every American individual and company is entitled,” the Web site said.
Exxon has paid more than $3 billion in cleanup costs, government settlements, fines and compensation. The $4.5 billion at issue is just for punishment, Exxon said. Spill occurred in March 1989 The Exxon Valdez ran aground on a charted reef in Prince William Sound in March 1989, creating America’s largest tanker spill. The estimated 11 million gallons of spilled oil fouled the sound, contaminated an estimated 1,300 miles of shoreline, killed marine creatures and disrupted commercial fishing.
A jury in 1994 first awarded $5 billion in punitive damages to people whose livelihoods were harmed by the spill. Exxon appealed and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in 2001 that the award was too much.
The U.S. District Court trial judge, H. Russel Holland, has reviewed the amount twice at the direction of the Appeals Court. Holland made his most recent ruling almost two years ago. He said Exxon should pay $4.5 billion, an award that could amount to almost $7 billion with interest.
The judge said Exxon had “demonstrated reckless disregard for a broad range of legitimate Alaska concerns.”
ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil company, earned nearly $10 billion in the third quarter of this year.
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