SCOTUS lowers Exxon’s spill damages.
June 25, 2008 by Dusty
Fuckers…It happened 19 years ago and the rat bastards haven’t paid any of the damages, but they have taken it all the way through the courts. Now, SCOTUS has taken the case and lowered the $2.5 billion punitive damages award. Punitive damages are designed to punish a wrongdoer, while compensatory damages compensate a wronged party for the loss they suffered. From CNN:
The high court concluded that punitive damages should roughly match actual damages from the environmental disaster, which were about $507 million. Lower courts were asked to reassess the jury verdict, extending the years-long litigation in the case.
The ‘liberals’ on the court agreed with part of the ruling.Not only did the Valdez destroy thousands upon thousands of mammals, it also destroyed much of their habitat and the fishing that locals depended upon for their livelihood.
But its all about the bottom line for Exxon..not for owning up to anything..just spending millions in Lawyers Fees in order to lower the hit to their fucking bottom line.
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How the hell could they do this????? omg…so disgusting…and people say the Supreme Court is not an important issue…..and then there the asshole that want offshore drilling- we should just show them hours and hours of these photos….idiots….
In a skewed response, I once saw a folk band who had changed the lyrics of the Song *What do you do with a Drunken Sailor*
*What do you do with a Drunken Sailor*
*What do you do with a Drunken Sailor*
Put him at the helm of an Exxon Tanker
Put him at the helm of an Exxon Tanker
Ear-lie in the morning
OK – that was crude and strange as was the idea that the Captain of that ship was drunken-sailing a freaking oil tanker.
The damage happened in a previously pristine Ocean eco system & so much death & damage happened as a result. Just because they dragged teh case out in appeal after appeal, it does not- should not minimize the punative damages– because they should set the precident that if you are a wreckless major oil company having this kind of carelessness result, it should cost them- and they have the money to do it. Exxon gets zero sympathy from me.
It would not be a hardship for Exxon to pay the $, but it was a hardship for all the people & wildlife in the region.
And what became of Capt’n Hazelton?
The Coast Guard suspended the captain’s license of Joseph Hazelwood for nine months for his actions as the skipper of the Exxon Valdez when she ran aground off Alaska in March 1989.
The decision by an administrative law judge for the Coast Guard came after the judge found Captain Hazelwood guilty of consuming alcohol within four hours of sailing and of negligence in leaving the bridge of the ship just before the accident, which caused the nation’s worst oil spill.
Captain Hazelwood pleaded no contest to those charges. In return, the Coast Guard dropped charges of intoxication and of wrongfully turning over command of the ship to a third mate who was not properly licensed.
The judge, Harry Gardner, said that once the nine months had passed, Captain Hazelwood’s license would be returned to him, but that for one more year he would hold it on a probationary status. Should he be found guilty of violating any Coast Guard regulation in the probationary period, his license would be automatically suspended for at least three months.
THREE MONTHS??? What a fricking hand slap!
Still, with a resume like that– who the fuck would want to hire Hazelton to put at the helm of their ship?
Swab the deck maybe….. but Captain?
Nearly 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into Prince William Sound when the Exxon Valdez struck a charted reef.
The Supreme Court slashed the fine to ONE TENTH of the original amount the jury awarded.
So if you drag out the worst coastal environmental disaster for 20 years, the penalty will soften?
I hate to think this is par for the Reich Wing course…. but this was inexcusable.
WAPO Reports:
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy joined Souter in the majority.
Justices John Paul Stevens, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer dissented. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who owns Exxon Mobil stock, recused himself from the case.
A jury had originally awarded $5 billion to the nearly 33,000 fishermen, Native Alaskans and landowners brought together in the class-action lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit reduced the amount to $2.5 billion.
The Exxon Valdez oil tanker left the port of Valdez, Alaska, late on the evening of March 23, 1989, loaded with 53 million gallons of crude oil. Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, who had been drinking that night, was in charge when the nearly 1,000-foot vessel aground on a reef, and nearly 11 million gallons of oil flowed into Prince William Sound. It was the worst oil spill in North America.
Stevens said that, given the facts of the case, the damages should have been upheld.
“In light of Exxon’s decision to permit a lapsed alcoholic to command a supertanker carrying tens of millions of gallons of crude oil through the treacherous waters of Prince William Sound, thereby endangering all of the individuals who depended upon the sound for their livelihoods, the jury could reasonably have given expression to its ‘moral condemnation’ of Exxon’s conduct in the form of this award,” he wrote.
Exxon Mobil, through its Washington attorney Walter E. Dellinger, argued that it had been punished enough. The company said it has paid $3.4 billion in cleanup costs and other penalties for the oil spill, which polluted 1,200 miles of Alaskan coastline.
The company issued a statement from chairman and chief executive Rex W. Tillerson that said, in part: “We know this has been a very difficult time for everyone involved. We have worked hard over many years to address the impacts of the spill and to prevent such accidents from happening in our company again.”
Alaska politicians denounced the decision. “Today’s ruling adds insult to injury to the fishermen, communities and Alaska natives who have been waiting nearly 20 years for proper compensation following the worst environmental disaster in our nation’s history,”
frans last blog post..Medication I can use
I cry (cried) for the wildlife and the fishing and habitat.
When will we see?
When…
It is so damned heartbreaking. This story seems a far-flung, oily memory. Nearly 20 years! One would imagine, hope, that all has (had) been taken care of and this terrible, irreversible tragedy resolved… but fucking EXXON! Enough said.
AND scotus!