Exxon Seeks Cap on Number of Suits Over Valdez Spill

Two weeks after a proposed $1.1-billion settlement collapsed, Exxon Corp. asked a federal judge to limit the parties eligible to make claims for damages arising from the massive 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound.

Exxon filed a 15-page complaint late Thursday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, asking the court to consolidate 11 suits pending in three different courts and to define which parties can make claims against the oil company.

Among other things, Exxon seeks to exclude Native Alaskan villages and corporations, which have sued Exxon for damage to their subsistence lifestyle.

Meanwhile, a proposal by Native Alaskans for a new, $3-billion settlement of civil and criminal actions seemed to have lost the support of the state. Alaska Atty. Gen. Charles Cole said “it doesn’t look attractive to the state at first blush.”

Exxon’s court action Thursday is the newest twist in a flood of litigation arising out of the devastating spill of oil from the tanker Exxon Valdez after it ran aground on March 24, 1989.

Earlier this month, both Exxon and the state of Alaska pulled out of a proposed agreement with federal officials that would have settled their civil litigation against Exxon for natural resource damage and restoration.

Alaska Atty. Gen. Cole said Friday that he was trying to arrange new settlement talks but that none had been scheduled.

In April, a federal judge rejected a companion agreement among Exxon, state and federal officials that would have settled outstanding criminal pollution charges against the oil company. Exxon has until next Friday to reach a new criminal settlement or withdraw its guilty plea to the charges.

In the complaint filed Thursday, Exxon argues that it is exposed to “double or multiple liability because the several defendants in this action claim separate and duplicate rights to compensation for the same alleged losses.”

The parties have 20 days to respond to the complaint.

The new complaint “doesn’t raise anything new,” said Lloyd Miller, co-counsel for 18 Native Alaskan villages suing Exxon. “Exxon, the state, the federal government and Native villages have been in a continuing dispute over . . . the rights of the respective parties to natural resource damages. But it seems unnecessary to have filed a new lawsuit to air those issues.”

The complaint by Exxon Corp. and its shipping subsidiary names federal and state officials and Native Alaskan villages and corporations as defendants.

Meanwhile, Cole said the state would not support a proposal now being floated by Native Alaskan groups for a new settlement of civil and criminal charges.

The proposal actually is made up of two alternative plans. One would create a $3-billion fund, with $1 billion set aside for resource restoration and $2 billion to pay claims by Native Alaskans and others.

An alternative plan would create a $1.5-billion “land fund” to pay for damage claims only to the three largest affected landholders: the federal government, the state and Native Alaskans.