Corporate Liability Limits

Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker - Decision 06/25/08

Following a 19-year legal battle over one of the worst environmental disasters in history, a divided Supreme Court dealt a huge blow to the victims of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, holding that the jury's punitive damage award against the corporation was too high.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had already cut the trial court's award of $5 billion in half, but even that vast reduction did not satisfy the High Court.  In its 5-3 decision, the majority held that the law does not allow punitive damages to exceed the compensatory damages in maritime cases—leaving tens of thousands of people affected by the spill with only a tenth of what the jury had awarded them.  

 

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