June 25, 2008

THINK OF THE PENGUINS ... (via Our Legal Correspondent):

Court slashes judgment in Exxon Valdez disaster (Associated Press, June 25, 2008)

The court ruled that victims of the worst oil spill in U.S. history may collect punitive damages from Exxon Mobil Corp., but not as much as a federal appeals court determined.

Justice David Souter wrote for the court that punitive damages may not exceed what the company already paid to compensate victims for economic losses, about $500 million compensation.

Souter said that a penalty should be "reasonably predictable" in its severity.


Our legal correspondent notes that: In the juris prudence of punitive damages, I’m not aware of any 1-to-1 rule of thumb or goal of “predictability”…the whole point of “puni’s” is to punish outrageous behavior where the direct damages aren’t deemed to be sufficient deterrent.

Which just reinforces the point that, thanks to Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush, it's the most pro-business Court since the "Switch in Time". Perhaps even too pro-business for a Republic.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 25, 2008 11:40 AM

"the whole point...is to punish outrageous behavior where the direct damages aren’t deemed to be sufficient deterrent."

This comment could be applied to another decision the court deigned to hand down today...

Posted by: b at June 25, 2008 12:46 PM

Exxon voluntarily spent billions of dollars on the cleanup, scouring rocks with steam-hot pressure hoses, raking beaches, etc. Some say the cleanup caused more environmental damage than the accident itself.

Posted by: Gideon7 at June 25, 2008 2:07 PM

Your last sentence is the best part of the post. As I've pointed out here before, the business community in the US (and the world) is just as corrupt as the government.

I'm looking forward to the court's decision in an upcoming "Soylent Green" legalization battle.

Big Biz, Big gov. and Big Union are all perfectly aligned with undermining citizen's autonomy, but they sure have the "bread and circus" issue covered.

Posted by: Bruno at June 26, 2008 7:20 AM

Penguins? In Alaska?

Posted by: Mikey at June 26, 2008 7:36 AM

Thanks Mikey. Puffins maybe but penquins?

Maybe, "think of the baby seals"

Posted by: Bartman at June 26, 2008 8:06 AM
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