Exxon Goes Before SCOTUS to Fight Damages Claims
Exxon Mobil Corp. is going into the arguments Wednesday asking the high court to erase a federal court's awarding of punitive damages to nearly 33,000 fishermen, Native Alaskans, landowners, businesses and local governments. The 33,000 were the plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit who claimed private economic harm from the spill. The company claimed it had already paid many millions in government fines, as well as $3.4 billion in cleanup costs. A jury awarded $5 billion to the plaintiffs in 1994. A federal court later cut that amount in half, but it still was believed to be the largest punitive damages judgment of its kind in U.S. courts. Impatience and frustration, residents say, are the guiding emotions 19 years later. "Our region needs closure, and this is a vital component of our healing process," said Travis Vlasoff, a native Chugach fisherman from the village of Tatitlek, near Cordova. "We deserve justice for all we've endured and continue to endure fo...