$6.75 Billion Awarded in Exxon Valdez Spill

A federal judge Wednesday ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay about $6.75 billion to thousands of Alaskans affected by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The ruling is the latest of several damage awards in the case over the last decade -- the result of successful appeals in federal court by Exxon. The company plans to appeal again.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge H. Russel Holland ordered Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, to pay $4.5 billion in punitive damages and about $2.25 billion in interest.

The money is to go to 32,000 plaintiffs who make their living from Prince William Sound, the site of the 11-million gallon spill.

“We have now closed the trial court doors for the last time in this litigation after 15 years,” said David Oesting, lead attorney for those who sued. “We’re definitely on track to the end of the entire dispute.”

The judge had been ordered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider the damages awarded in an earlier ruling in light of a Supreme Court decision last year on punitive damages.

“This ruling flies in the face of the guidelines set by the appeals court,” company spokesman Tom Cirigliano said.

Holland reduced the Exxon punitive damages award to $4 billion a year ago after a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit found the original $5 billion verdict excessive.

For his latest ruling, the judge was to consider a Supreme Court decision last year on a Utah traffic crash. The justices ruled that a jury’s award of $145 million to punish an insurance company was grossly excessive when actual damages were $1 million.

The Supreme Court held that the ratio of punitive to actual damages should not exceed 9-to-1.

Lawyers for each side came up with different estimates for actual spill damages and argued that the Supreme Court ruling supported their damage claims.

The spill occurred March 23, 1989, fewer than three hours after the Exxon Valdez left the Alyeska Pipeline terminal. The ship grounded, rupturing eight of its 11 cargo tanks.

An estimated 250,000 seabirds and thousands of marine mammals died as a result of the spill, which contaminated more than 1,200 miles of shoreline.

Lingering effects of the spill include declines in various marine populations.