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Thursday, June 30, 2011

$495 Million Award From Exxon In Baltimore Co. Gas Spill Could Grow

Jury returned sealed verdict on damages Tuesday, discussing punitive award

A Baltimore County jury has ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay more than $495 million to compensate a group of Jacksonville families and businesses for claims of lost property value, emotional distress and medical monitoring resulting from a 2006 underground gasoline leak — and damages could continue to grow.

The Circuit Court jury was scheduled to continue working Thursday to decide an amount to award the 160 families and businesses in punitive damages, which could be several times higher. The six-member civil jury began deliberations Wednesday afternoon on a financial award to punish the company for what its verdict described as "fraud," including misleading state and county officials and Jacksonville community members about the equipment at the gas station, the reason why the station initially closed, and about efforts to clean up the spill.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Finally a gas company biting the bullet, nice to see in the current day and age.

Anonymous said...

Just a big government sponsered shakedown of teh oil industry.
When I was young we use gasoline as a weed killer. It doesn't cause all the havok and damage that the environazis would lead you to believe.

Anonymous said...

The tenant of the station was negligent and did not perform his daily reconciliations which caused the leak to go undetected. He ended up doing jail time.

Exxon writes the check as the tenant negligence cancelled the insurance policy. They have the cash...

Anonymous said...

Exxon still hasn't paid in full for the Valdez spill, it'll be decades before anyone sees any money except the lawyers.

Anonymous said...

Ultimately Exxon's customers will pay the bill in higher prices.