"The Romanian born-judge, famous for his caustic remarks, also added: "If your vessels sail into the vast waters of the Ninth Circuit, a jury can shipwreck your operations through punitive damages.""
i just love it. Enough is enough, Exxon has been allowed a pass on 2.5 billion dollars. i'm surprised that the federal courts have not made them poney up the money.
I am sure that they have had some "experts" going hard at it to calculate the cheapest/best outcome from their mistake and insist that this perfect scenerio is all that they should be required to pay. Greedy bastards should get fined for trying to litigate paying less.
Keep in mind, guys, that they've already spent Billions in clean up and habitat restoration costs. The $2.5 billion is punitive damages, which according to the dissenting judge that you've quoted above, have never before been a part ofan allowable claim under maritime law. If that is the case, they have every right to try to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. They've already paid for their damages. A "punitive damage" award is assessed as a punishment. It is not assessed to repay someone who has beenharmed by their actions.
"After the accident, Exxon acted as a model corporation - it spent over $2 billion to remove oil from the water and adjacent shore and $900 million to restore damaged natural resources."
Being pissed off about gas prices is quite understandable but it really has nothing to do with this case.They imediately put well over 2 billion dollars into the cleanup and if Im not mistaken{been awhile since I looked at this issue} reinforced all thier ship to use a double hull that would make it much more unlikely that this could happen again.Besides, if they pay an additional 2 billion in damages were the ones footingn the bill anyway, theyll just raise gas a dime for a week and pay it off LOL
Excellent points by ispc and peta. Paying nearly 3 billion in cleanup isn't exactly a "free pass"--and, like peta said, who do you think is going to pay for it in the end?
Chad
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Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 24,185
RE: maaaaaad
I agree they should pay, but the flip side is, they will just jack up prices, or refuse to lower prices at the pump to pay for it. Even though they are making money hand over fist, they will continue at all costs.
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
Could it be that they haven't really caused $5 Billion in actual economic damages? The punishment has to 'fit the crime', no more, no less. Remember that this mess happened well before 9/11 or skyrocketing oil prices. You know, when Big Oil wasn't the scapegoat du jour?
Im a little dense sometimesIPS, what are punitive damages actually awarded for?You kinda lost me on that but Im propbably just unclear on the definition of punitive.
maaaaaad
