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Oil Spill Occurs.
Spilled more than 11 million gallons of oil.
Drunk Cpt. Joe Hazelwood is reason why event occurred.
Most people are harmed by oil spill.
Filed lawsuits against Exxon. Link text -
Exxon stepped forward and cleaned up, they spent more the 3.8 billion on clean up. However they were obviously going to be sued for punitive damages, over 32,000 fishermen got effected by this from lack of fish (not as much income. This is considered one of the worst environmental disasters in US history.
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/news/2010/04/30/7620/oil-spills-by-the-numbers/
http://www.internationalwildlifelaw.org/exxonvaldez.html -
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Jury finds Hazelwood not guilty. He had a criminal trial. There wasn't enough evidence to support that intoxication was the reason.
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Civil suit resulted in a billion dollar judgement against them.
They still have not paid for the damages years later. Source (https://www.epa.gov/aboutepa/exxon-pay-record-one-billion-dollars-criminal-fines-and-civil-damages-connection-alaskan) (http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-exxon-valdez-captains-conviction-is-overturned) -
Jury in the civil case awards the plaintiffs $287 million in actual damages and $5 billion in punitive damages. Negligence was considered the tort in this case, because it was not cared for in an acceptable way. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/17/us/exxon-is-ordered-to-pay-5-billion-for-alaska-spill.html?pagewanted=all
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Exxon had to pay $4.5 billion in punitive damages.
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"The state and federal governments seek $92 million in a reopener with the discovery of relative unweathered Exxon Valdez oil along beaches in the spill zone that could continue to pose dangers to wildlife, in particular otters and harlequin ducks." Link text
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"By a 5-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court orders the $2.5 billion punitive damage award be lowered to $507.5 million."
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The Exxon Valdez was bought by a company in Hong-Kong and later in Nov. the ship made headlines again after it collided with another cargo ship. Link text
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The case was closed and is said to not be reopened anymore after the Judge found the litigation ended.
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