Supreme Court considers Exxon’s liability for 1989 Alaska oil spill
(posted by Paige)
The Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday for the Exxon Valdez case. Under question is how much in punitive damages Exxon is liable for, if any, to compensate the “more than 32,000 fishermen and small-business owners who filed this class action suit against Exxon in 1994,” according to Dahlia Lithwick of Slate. Here’s what she has to say about the case:
Life at Exxon will hardly grind to a halt if this judgment must ultimately be paid. The plaintiffs have calculated that the company, which boasted $40.6 billion in profits last year, earns $2.5 billion in net profits about every three weeks. Even if Exxon pays out the full amount, the $75,000 or so each class member will collect won’t be enough to rebuild the dying town and businesses the Valdez spill has left behind. Which further contributes to the sense that Exxon should pay simply because it can afford to. Of course, that’s not the issue here, but then, when you’re surrounded by grizzled men in faded rugby shirts in the gallery of the Supreme Court, the niceties of vicarious liability fall away, which is precisely what Fisher set out to prove. In an unusually visceral way today, you can’t quite shake the contrast between the high-flying corporate world of big oil and the rusting old fishing boats in Cordova, Alaska. Oil and water still don’t mix. Even 19 years later.