Exxon Asks Courts to Bar Oil Spill Awards

Exxon has asked state and federal courts to award nothing to fishermen and others who have sued the company, but an Exxon lawyer said Wednesday that the oil company was willing to settle damage claims out of court.

In 400 pages of answers filed Tuesday in the many lawsuits arising from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, Exxon Shipping Co. asked that the plaintiffs be awarded no damages and that the suits be dismissed with costs and lawyers’ fees awarded to Exxon.

However, Exxon lawyer Peter Shapiro said in Seattle that Exxon stands by its commitment to pay actual damages, but only through out-of-court claims settlements.

Pays $60 Million

Exxon has paid more than $60 million in actual damages so far through the company’s claims offices in seven Alaska cities and Seattle, Exxon spokesman Fred Davis said in Valdez, Alaska.

The Exxon court filings offered a hint of the company’s legal strategy in the estimated 140 suits in state Superior Court and U.S. District Court in Anchorage, many of them class-action suits filed by fishermen.

Exxon’s legal replies do not address the suit filed Tuesday by the state of Alaska, which accuses Exxon, the Alyeska Pipeline Co. and all seven oil company owners of the pipeline of wrongdoing before and after the nation’s worst oil spill.

Alaska’s long-expected suit was filed nearly five months after the March 24 spill and followed suits filed by many others affected by the Exxon Valdez accident.

In its replies to the multitude of legal complaints, Exxon has acknowledged little except that its tanker ran aground on a charted reef outside the tanker lanes, spilling nearly 11 million gallons of oil.

Exxon documents state that “the delay in bringing the Exxon Valdez back into the traffic lanes appears at present to be the principal cause of the collision with Bligh Reef.”

Exxon says that the 987-foot tanker was speeding ahead at 12 knots, on a detour to avoid icebergs, and that “immediately prior to and at the time of the grounding, the vessel was being operated by only one deck officer in violation of the vessel’s own instructions.”

But the oil company said it alone is not to blame and that others bear responsibility for events surrounding the accident, including some not named in suits.