For the fishermen of Prince William Sound it is 19 years wait for punitive damages in the 1989 Exxon Valdez crude oil spill case. Now due to appeal they have to wait for another delay. Lawyers for Sea Hawk Seafoods Inc., a Seattle-based company that ran a fish-processing plant in Valdez, have filed court papers objecting to the current allocation plan.
The company is now seeking a new plan that conforms to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June. IN June the lower courts has ordered the company to pay up to $507.5 million in punitive damages to nearly 33,000 commercial fishermen, cannery workers, land owners, Alaska Natives and others who claimed harm from the spill. They had been seeking $5 billion awarded by an Anchorage jury in 1994.
It is said that after the Supreme Court decision, lawyers for the plaintiffs and Exxon worked out a partial settlement under which Exxon agreed to release $383 million. It was decided that the money was to be distributed under an allocation plan approved in 1996 by Anchorage federal Judge H. Russel Holland.
In an appeal lawyers for Sea Hawk Seafoods filed their paperwork October 9 saying the Supreme Court held that the size of punitive damage awards must be proportional to the size of compensatory damage awards already paid to plaintiffs. According to them the current allocation plan is flawed because some plaintiffs stand to receive larger or smaller shares than they deserve, the Sea Hawk lawyers argue.
Anchorage attorney David Oesting, the lead lawyer for Exxon Valdez plaintiffs, said he will fight Sea Hawk’s effort. He added that they just want a whole lot more money that they’re not really entitled to. Oesting estimated the Sea Hawk challenge could take 18 months. Until then, the money can’t be paid out, he said. Frank Mullen, a Homer commercial salmon fisherman, said he and other plaintiffs were exasperated over the years it took the courts to decide on punitive damages and the Sea Hawk motion adds to the frustration.
