Top US court slashes Exxon Valdez oil damages

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The US Supreme Court Wednesday rejected as excessive 2.5 billion dollars in punitive damages awarded to victims of the Exxon Valdez oil disaster and said it should be cut to 507 million dollars.

The long-running legal battle stretches back to March 24, 1989 when the Exxon Valdez crashed into a reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of crude into the seas in the country's worst oil disaster.

After the spill, ExxonMobil spent about 2.1 billion dollars cleaning up the polluted coastline and more than 300 million in compensation for fishermen and locals affected by the catastrophe.

The company also paid out more than 900 million dollars of fines in a bid to halt criminal proceedings brought against it by the US government and the state of Alaska.

In an opinion penned by Justice David Souter, the Supreme Court said ...