login
Become a member
Quick Registration
Full Registration Benefits -
Free Homepages for Doctors
Free Homepages for Hospitals
Free Homepages for Medical Conference
Free Homepages for NGO's
Personal Health Record Creation
Access to all Medical Slides
Access to all Jobs & Products Sale
18 Years on Exxon Still Won't Pay $2.5 Billion for Valdez Oil Spill
But 18 years on, oil giant Exxon Mobill whose tanker had leaked some 11 million gallons crude oil is yet to pay up the damages awarded to the communities hit by the spill.
Last week the Supreme Court agreed to consider whether maritime law allowed for the imposition of punitive damages, an issue on which lower federal courts are divided.
The oil had hit some 1,500 miles of coastline, decimating the fish and wildlife populations for years afterward. Hundreds of bald eagles and otters, scores of killer whales and thousands of birds of other species perished, as did untold numbers of salmon, herring, clams, mussels and other forms of aquatic life.
The spill caused personal tragedy and hardship as well as environmental damage. The livelihoods of Alaska fishermen were threatened, and a decade after the disaster the shoreline was still not back to its pre-spill condition.
Apparently the ships captain, a notorious alcoholic, was mainly responsible for the disaster. Still feeling the effects of at least five double-strength whiskeys he had downed in waterfront bars, Captain Hazelwood was resting in his cabin as the tanker and its 53 million gallons of oil ran aground on March 24, 1989.
A federal court jury found in 1994 that ExxonMobil and its captain were reckless and negligent, and ordered the corporation to pay $5 billion in punitive damages. Eventually, the award was reduced on appeal to $2.5 billion by a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which held that, while the oil company had committed reckless misconduct in placing a known relapsed alcoholic at the helm of the tanker, its misconduct was not so egregious as to warrant the higher punishment figure.
|
|
|
More News on: Diet Lifestyle and Heart Disease
 Comment & Contribute
|
Medwonders Health Network
- Health News Index
|
|
- News Quick Links
| News Categories: |
| » | Revision in Quality Standards for Heparin |
| » | Acne Drug Users At High Risk of Developing Eye Infections |
| » | Patients Who Take Antidepressants When in ICU More Likely to Die |
| » | New Tablet Coating Product by Ideal Cures, In Geneva |
| » | Prednisolone Benefits Patients With Bell's Palsy |
| More Drug News | |
|
