http://thedailyrecord.com/2011/06/30/exxon-hit-with-1b-more-in-damages/ Unfortunately it doesn't put a huge hit in their finances, seeing as Exxon made ~11 billion in just the first quarter this year. They'll also appeal and drag this out for years to come. Either way, we can only hope that the whole mess has persuaded them to be just a little responsible in their business practices. Oh, and now we can spend some money on the O's and win a few games. Exxon Mobil Corp. has been hit with $1 billion in punitive damages for a 2006 gasoline leak in rural Baltimore County, sources close to the litigation said. That’s in addition to about $495 million in compensatory damage awards that were made public Wednesday. All told, compensatory and punitive damages come to $1.542 billion, said the sources, who requested anonymity because the figure has not yet been released by Baltimore County Circuit Court. The jury of six women deliberated for two days on the amount of punitive damages in the suit by 160 households and businesses in the area. The amounts were entered on verdict sheets, but not read aloud in court, about 5:15 Thursday. ... Those 36 awards amounted to more than $320 million. The amounts varied from more than $38 million for one plaintiff with multiple properties to $50,000. Jurors have been hearing the case since January. Judge Robert N. Dugan choked up as he thanked them for their service before dismissing them, concluding the six-month trial that stemmed from a 25,000-gallon-plus gasoline leak that went undetected for more than five weeks. The jurors declined to speak to reporters as they left the courthouse. Many Jacksonville residents applauded the jurors as they left the courtroom and then exchanged hugs with one another and their lawyers from The Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos PC in Baltimore. “This is the way the system should work,” said a relieved-looking Theodore M. Flerlage Jr., the plaintiffs’ lead lawyer, outside the courthouse. “We had a powerful case for punitive damages,” added H. Russell Smouse, Flerlage’s colleague. An Exxon spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that the company had “no choice but to appeal.” “Exxon Mobil did not engage in fraud or deliberate misconduct,” Rachel L. Moore wrote. “This was an accident, as the jury found in the 2009 Alban case.” .... Thursday’s punitive awards cover intentional misconduct by Exxon, including misrepresentations in information it gave county officials and the Maryland Department of the Environment. Jurors also faulted the company for not mentioning the leak on a sign that was posted for a few days on the site, which said the station was “Closed for Upgrades.”...
You've got your blinders on, bruddah. An Exxon spokeswoman said in an emailed statement that the company had “no choice but to appeal.” Sadly, this saga will now spend YEARS in appeals as Big Oil drags it out until many of the plaintiffs are dead or have re-located. At some point, way in the future, Big Oil will make an offering of a paltry sum of money to whoever is still hanging around. And I guarantee you that when this is finally 'really' settled, years from now, there will be no headlines, no media, no nothing as people suck up yet another a s s reaming by Big Oil. The system is so broken in our country that it's a cryin' shame.
"look on the sunny side of life" (idle). yes, but the larger point is the victory itself, however symbolic. the alternative is to take the reaming and no vaseline at all. it is imperative that these challenges to large entities who run roughshod over the rest of us continue....and just like the civil rights battles and gender battles (still ragin') it is a slow process.
My point exactly... ...and it's Baltimore bruddah (sponge). This ain't conservative Alaska. This is crazy @#$@ing liberal Maryland. Exxon will appeal, no doubt in that, and they'll chip away a little bit, but not much. I've been following this case for the whole time ("friend" of mine works for Petey), and it's fraud, clear and simple. The appeal might take some time, but it's not going far. Exxon threw their biggest law firm at this one and lost. JDL Piper is the biggest law firm in the world, and they were one of three firms hired by Exxon, and they still lost. Reason? They don't have a case.
I'm def pleased that Big Oil took one in the shorts. So don't get my angle wrong there. Jes sayin' that these headlines are really misleading. The full story should be related to the public. But it's not. Those people won't see a dime for years to come. ExxonMobil made, what, 8 billion in the 1st quarter of this year (and that's profit, not gross revenue). They now appeal the verdict in an already clogged court system; they have the junior lawyers assigned to it (to keep legal billing overhead lower) & they then find every bit of minutiae to keep appealing it. Some of these cases drag on for a decade. The headlines are the pleasure point. The reality is that our system is massively out of whack. And, bottom line. Big Oil combined with Big Lawyer, will do it again & again. They got caught once, they don't care. You'll pay for it at the pump anyways. I'm really not a pessimist, truly. But stuff like this ? It happens so often that you have to know that it's par for the course in terms of how Big Oil operates, and sadly, not an exception where they just made an operating error.
hello, i love you, goodbye i hope it works out that way, aloha. i am afraid that the pumpmaster's and yankee's prediction may be more the way things have gone lately. maybe the little guys will win this time.
Big oil companies have successfully convinced us that they are "too big to fail", or "too crucial to the economy to be penalized". Any misdoing on their part which results in a financial judgement against them, or increased regulation is portrayed as harmful to the economy, because fuel prices will go up. They exist (with coal) in a place somewhere above or outside the free market where they can cause damage to neighbors and be held relatively unaccountable. Ask anyone in West Virginia who has been flooded out in a watershed where coal companies are allowed to dump slag right into the stream channel. Free market conservatives should be skeptical and offended like I am when government institutions (courts and cabinet agencies) actively hold certain companies, segments of the economy, etc. to lower standards than others, tilting the playing field, and squashing competition.
