Exxon found reckless in 1989 Valdez oil spill

Abstract

A federal jury in Anchorage last week found that Exxon's reckless conduct caused the 1989 Exxon Valdez accident that spilled 10.9 million gal of oil into Alaska's Prince William Sound. The decision, the first phase of a four-part civil case over the spill, opens Exxon to punitive damages as high as $15 billion and compensatory claims as high as $1.5 billion. Most of the plaintiffs, at least 14,000, are commercial fishermen and native Alaskans. The trial's second phase, to consider compensatory damages, begins this week; punitive damages are on the docket of a third phase, scheduled for later this summer. The fourth phase will consider thousands of individual claims brought by other plaintiffs. Plaintiffs argued that Exxon was reckless in allowing Joseph Hazelwood to serve as captain of the supertanker knowing that he had a history of alcoholism and had resumed drinking. Witnesses testified he drank up to 14 shots of vodka the ...