Exxon Valdez’s Next Stop is High Court
Litigation in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill case will come to an end if the U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear a punitive-damages appeal.
About 22 percent of the $2.5 billion award will go to attorney fees, the Legal Intelligencer reports.
Last month the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco refused to rehear its 2006 decision cutting the original $5 billion jury award in half.
Exxon Mobil Corp. has vowed to appeal, saying the Supreme Court needs to provide more guidance on punitive damages, according to Reuters.
One of the plaintiffs’ lawyers, Harold Berger of Berger & Montague in Philadelphia, told the Intelligencer he thinks the Supreme Court will decline the case. “I think there has to be an end to litigation sometime,” he said.
