« Bats in the Belfry | Main | Enviromentalists Say: "EPA Should Make Sure National Parks Have Clean Air!" »

June 25, 2008

Supreme Court Reduces Punitive Damages to 1/10th of What the Jury Thought Was Fair for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

Right now the folks at Exxon Mobile are probably writing out their 'Thank You' cards to the U.S. Supreme Court Justices.  Even though the company posted a "disappointing" $10.9 billion profit in the first quarter of 2008 (the second highest U.S. corporate profit ever – the highest being themselves in 2007) the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today that the company only has to pay $500 million (nope, I didn't forget a zero) in punitive damages to the 30,000 victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Okay, so in 1994, when a jury in Alaska awarded the victims $5 billion, the punitive damages award really might have punished the company for causing this disaster.  In 1994, $5 billion represented a year's profits for the oil company.  In 2006, the award was cut down to $2.5 billion and only represented "about three weeks of Exxon's current [2006] net profits."  So, the current $500 million damage award is what?  Well, according to the New York Times, Exxon Mobile earned more than $1,287 of profit for every second of 2007.

At that rate, it only took them four and a half days to pay off this court's punitive damages judgment.


UPDATE:  There have been lots of commentary on this decision today.  These are some of our favorites.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e54f08fd10883400e5538b58398834

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Supreme Court Reduces Punitive Damages to 1/10th of What the Jury Thought Was Fair for the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill:

Comments

Thank you notes. I love it. Well, I hate it. You know what I mean.

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

This is only a preview. Your comment has not yet been posted.

Working...
Your comment could not be posted. Error type:
Your comment has been saved. Comments are moderated and will not appear until approved by the author. Post another comment

The letters and numbers you entered did not match the image. Please try again.

As a final step before posting your comment, enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below. This prevents automated programs from posting comments.

Having trouble reading this image? View an alternate.

Working...

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

Welcome

Search

  • Google

    WWW
    www.thepoptort.com

Got a News Tip?

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

  • All opinions expressed on this blog are those of the authors only. Any disputes should be addressed to the authors or commentators. The Pop Tort invites comment to further the debate on issues addressed, but we reserve the right to deny or remove any post or comment.

  • Blog Design by John Guyette and Daniel Albanese
Blog powered by TypePad
Related Posts Widget for Blogs by LinkWithin