Both Sides Plan to Appeal Ruling in Amoco Cadiz Spill

Lawyers for Amoco Corp. and French plaintiffs are unhappy with a judge’s ruling that Amoco should pay nearly $160 million in damages for a 1978 oil spill off northern France, indicating that a final settlement is still far away.

U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle on Monday issued a seven-page order in the case, spelling out recommended damages for the massive spill from the Amoco Cadiz tanker. He set July 24 as the date that he would specify final judgments and instructed parties to the lawsuit to calculate interest owed them.

Norgle’s order says he is in basic agreement with damage recommendations made last year by former U.S. District Judge Frank McGarr, who was appointed a special master in the case.

“We don’t expect to have to pay it,” Frank Cicero, a lawyer representing Chicago-based Amoco, said of the expected judgment.

“We think Judge McGarr erred on both his legal rulings and his evidentiary rulings. We believe we’ll get it reversed.”

Cicero said the company believes that the shipbuilder, not Amoco, was at fault in the spill. He said the company will appeal to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals after the July 24 hearing. The appeals process could take two years, Cicero said.

Warren Marwedel, a lawyer for the French plaintiffs, said his clients will appeal because they believe that Amoco is liable and that the award was too little.