By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Jan. 14 -- ExxonMobil Corp. said the full US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to reconsider a decision striking a $5 billion punitive judgment against the company for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the award was excessive (OGJ Online, Nov. 7, 2001).
The three-judge panel remanded the case to Anchorage, Alas., Federal District Court with orders to reduce the award to an amount consistent with constitutional limits.
ExxonMobil said it spent $2.2 billion on the spill cleanup, continuing the effort from 1989 until 1992. It said that more than 11,000 people and businesses received more than $300 million in compensation.
It said an Anchorage jury determined in 1994 that actual damages totaled $287 million and rejected the plaintiffs' claims for additional compensatory damages.