U.S. Supreme Court To Tackle Punitive Damages Again
The U.S. Supreme Court announced earlier today that it has agreed to accept Exxon’s petition for certiorari from a ruling of the Ninth Circuit holding it liable for $2.5 billion in punitive damages for its claimed misconduct in connection with the Exxon Valdez oil spill.
It appears from the court’s October 29 cert order, which accepted briefing on issues raised by Exxon's petition concerning the propriety of such an award under federal maritime law but not on grounds of constitutional due process, that any resulting ruling will have narrower application to bad faith claims and other punitive damage suits than the Court’s recent rulings in State Farm v. Campbell and Williams v. Philip Morris.
