Exxon To Pay Interest On Valdez Oil Spill Damages

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. has decided not to appeal hundreds of millions of dollars in interest on punitive damages resulting from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The Irving, Texas-based company will pay about $470 million in interest on more than $507.5 million in punitive damages following the 11 million gallon spill of crude in Prince William Sound, company spokesman Tony Cudmore said Monday.

The company expects to make payment on the interest in the next few days, said plaintiffs' lawyer David Oesting. Exxon's decision was first reported Monday by the Anchorage Daily News.

The decision is a turnaround for the company. Exxon Mobil since the mid-1990s has appealed court rulings on punitive damages.

"I think they recognized they weren't going any further from a legal standpoint," Oesting said.

Earlier this month, Exxon Mobil was ordered to pay interest on the punitive damages. The ruling issued by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco nearly doubles the average payout of about $15,000 to 33,000 Alaska Natives, fishermen, business owners and others.

Numerous studies have found the region has not fully recovered from the disaster that fouled 1,200 miles of coastline in the nation's worst crude oil spill.

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 and instead sent it back to the appeals court.

Cudmore said he couldn't elaborate on why Exxon Mobil decided to pay interest, except to say the company felt it should adhere to the appeals court decision.

Exxon argued unsuccessfully that if interest had to be paid, it should be calculated from the date the punitive damages were set last by the Supreme Court. But the appeals court said interest on the $507.5 million judgment should run from 1996, when the original settlement was entered into court records, at a rate of 5.9 percent.

Legal battles over the Exxon Valdez spill have lasted years but now appear to be ending. The only remaining sum in dispute is $70 million in court fees, Cudmore said.

An Anchorage jury in 1994 awarded plaintiffs $5 billion. That was cut in half by the 9th Circuit. The Supreme Court in a split decision reduced the total to $507.5 million.

Oesting said the plaintiffs' have "clearly prevailed" in the case, even if the original $5 billion judgment was drastically reduced.

Comments

[jayhawk67]

How about somebody sues the oil companies for the costs of the Iraq war since they were to be the beneficiaries of that fiasco?

[delvis]

This means I get another check. Thanks Exxon

[TrooAmerican]

wow, after 20 years, they have to pay out a grand total of about $30k per "class-member" for negligence that wiped out the way of life for tens of thousands of natives, residents, and decimated pristine areas of tourism, food sources, wildlife habitats, and living space.

wooopeeee.

and this from the company that in 2005 did an interview with forbes or fortune, i forget which. They stated "money is coming in so fast, we dont know what to do with it"

Oil companies are your friends, help them, help them increase profits for their owners.

[mlaiuppa]

They decided to pay now that they're back in bed with Sarah Palin. They can't rape and steal more from Alaska until they get their foot in the door. So paying a paltry sum will allow them to steal billions.

[Peatbog]

Punitive damages were levied because Exxon did something very wrong.

The cleanup has not been completed, but afaik Exxon is long gone.

Incredibly, several even larger criminal fines have been assessed to healthcare and pharmaceutical companies in recent years for fraud.

[JoshuaLudd]

Does it actually cost $50 to $100 to clean up and make up for the damage done by each gallon in that spill? No... far far more.