Legal News

High Court Says No Thanks to Exxon-Mobil Punitives Appeal

By Ashby Jones

The long-standing punitive-damages puzzle story received another chapter on Monday, when the Supreme Court denied cert on an appeal by Exxon Mobil requesting reconsideration of a $112 million punitive damages award. The award was levied against Exxon Mobil in a case concerning radioactive contamination at a Harvey, La., industrial property. Here are stories from Dow Jones Newswires and Scotusblog. (This case is not to be confused with the Exxon-Valdez punitives case, currently pending at the Supreme Court.)

The procedural history: Last year, the Supremes sent the case back to the Louisiana courts in light of their own February 2007 ruling in Philip Morris v. Williams, which essentially established that punitive damages should not be issued against a party for harm done to non-parties. A Louisiana appeals court left the judgment intact in August 2007.

Exxon Mobil, in its latest appeal, said the Louisiana state court failed to follow the strictures set down in the Philip Morris case. “Due process does not allow a jury to punish a defendant for harm or potential harm that its conduct has allegedly imposed on nonparties to the litigation,” the company said. Exxon Mobil added the high court should take up its case to have an “opportunity to confirm, for those courts that have been unwilling to listen, that the court meant what it said in Williams.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 21, 2008 (boomark / email).