A 9^th Circuit Federal Appeals Court on Friday reduced the verdict against ExxonMobil for its 1989 Prince Williams Sound oil spill which dumped eleven million gallons of crude oil along 1500 miles of shoreline. The original $5 Billion dollar award was reduced by the court to $2.5 Billion dollars in a 2 – 1 opinion. In 1994 an Alaska jury awarded the original verdict on behalf of some 34,000 fisherman who had been damaged by the spill.

An appeal to the U.S. Supreme court is likely in this case which has become the longest pending civil cases in U.S. history. The case has been in the appellate courts for a dozen years without payment. I’ve previously reported about ExxonMobil and its enormous profits at the expense of consumers (12/6/06) Only a company  this huge and powerful could find a way to keep from paying a judgment against it for over a decade. Justice delayed is justice denied.