Most of those fishermen in Alaska are Republicans and they will be shocked by the decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in throwing out the $5 Billion punitive damages award. I think their view of trial lawyers has changed somewhat. <ggg>
Alaskans shocked by Exxon Valdez ruling
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal appeals court's decision to throw out a $5 billion punitive-damage verdict against Exxon stemming from the nation's worst oil spill sparked anger among Alaskan fishermen and prompted the governor to consider intervening.
In its ruling Wednesday, the court said some damages were justified to punish the company for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, but decided the $5 billion was excessive. The panel ordered a lower court to reduce that amount.
"That $5 billion would have at least put a finger in the dike," said Patience Anderson Faulkner, who chronicled the damage from the oil spill for attorneys pursuing a class-action lawsuit against Exxon Mobil.
Her family owned a fishing permit valued at about $210,000 before the spill. She said if she still owned it, the permit would be worth about $50,000 for anyone foolish enough to buy it.
Small numbers of salmon straggle back annually but the herring are long gone and fishermen blame Exxon.
"We all recognize violence doesn't help, but we sure would like to choke them," Faulkner said.
Lee Raymond, chairman of the oil company, said through a statement the company took responsibility for the spill and has already paid more than $3 billion in cleanup costs and compensation.
Raymond said the spill "was a tragic accident that the company deeply regrets."
David Oesting, a lawyer representing fishermen in the case, said he might ask the court to reconsider or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review it.
Gov. Tony Knowles said Wednesday he will attempt to bring the two sides to a negotiated settlement, saying the case has dragged on too long.
"The Exxon Valdez oil spill has really been a cloud that has hung over those fishing families and communities for more than a decade," Knowles said. "The court decision today didn't bring any resolution to that."
A jury in Anchorage had ordered the oil giant in 1994 to pay the sum to thousands of commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the spill.
Exxon, which has since merged with Mobil to form Exxon Mobil Corp., had argued the verdict was "completely unwarranted, unfair and is excessive by any legal or practical measure."
The amount — the biggest punitive damage award in history at the time — was equal to a year's worth of Exxon's profits.
The jury also awarded commercial fishermen $287 million to compensate them for economic losses suffered as a result of the spill. The appeals court left that part of the verdict intact.
The state was not part of the lawsuit but reached a negotiated agreement with the federal government and Exxon in 1991.
The spill polluted Alaska's Prince William Sound with 11 million gallons of crude oil and smeared black goo across roughly 1,500 miles of coastline.
The jury found recklessness by Exxon and the captain of the Valdez, Joseph Hazelwood, who caused the tanker to run aground on a charted reef.
The plaintiffs had alleged that Hazelwood ran the ship aground while drunk and that Exxon knew he had a drinking problem. Hazelwood, however, was acquitted in 1990 of operating the tanker while drunk.
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