PUNITIVE DAMAGE AWARD REDUCED BY HALF
IN EXXON VALDEZ CLASS ACTION SUITOn December 22, 2006 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reduced the $4.5 billion punitive damage award in the Exxon Valdez oil spill to $2.5 billion.
With this decision, the Ninth Circuit tried to play King Solomon, but it cut the baby in half. Justice has NOT yet prevailed.
The message this decision sends to corporations is that if they just stall the court system long enough, they won't have to pay the full amount due to victims of corporate crimes.
The message this decision sends to the American people is that our legal system is broken. It no longer dispenses justice. Spill survivors have lost twice with this decision. First, in taking over a decade to reach a decision, justice is denied. Second, in reducing the punitive award, fishermen and other plaintiffs are not able to pay for long-term losses from the spill.
My next book, Not One Drop (Chelsea Green Publishing 2007), will address ways to return our legal system to a justice system.
Resources
FREE BOOKS FOR EDUCATORS
Science teachers, university professors
and non-profit organizations can order
Sound Truth & Corporate Myths for
the price of shipping and handling.Attention media: music by Malani
O'Toole to accompany radio/podcast
stories on EVOSFishermen stage re-enactment of 1994
blockade of Valdez Narrows. Includes
audio clips of Exxon's Don Cornett,
Joseph Hazelwood reporting the Exxon
Valdez hard aground, and clips of
fishermen and Alaska Natives
discussing the impacts of the spill
nearly two decades after it occurred.
