15 Years Since Exxon Valdez - Still No Settlement For AK Fishermen

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The Exxon civil case, like the spill itself, is unprecedented. It began in 1990, when hundreds of fishers and Native Americans whose subsistence lifestyle had forever been altered and, in some cases, destroyed by the spill, filed lawsuits against Exxon.

That same year, attorneys for Exxon filed motions to dismiss the charges in the five-count criminal indictment resulting from the spill. In technical arguments, the company claimed it could not be held criminally liable for the actions of Captain Joseph Hazelwood, despite the fact that officials had been told previously that Hazelwood was an alcoholic who had a history of shipboard binges. But perhaps the most memorable brief from this first round was the one in which Exxon claimed that crude oil was not a pollutant under the federal Clean Water Act. "The crude oil on board the Exxon Valdez was not a waste," Exxon Shipping attorney Edward Bruce said in Anchorage Federal Court. "It was a commodity."

The next year, discovery in the Valdez case began, and O'Neill and his firm, Minneapolis, Minnesota–based Faegre & Benson, consolidated the individual lawsuits. The discovery in the case was a massive undertaking; by the time it was over, the case file would contain 14 million documents, more than a thousand depositions, and 618 separate written opinions.

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One of the grimmest aspects of the spill's effect on Cordova has been the state of the once highly coveted commercial fishing permits. In Cordova, commercial fishing permits are like homes, an asset that accrues value. In 1988, there were fishers in the town whose permits were worth nearly $1 million. Today, permits have depreciated in value by a staggering 90 percent. Like the town of Cordova, the local Masonic Lodge is a ghost of its former self: Its stucco and cement crumbles around the corners, its meager lawn is brown and sparse. Inside, 18 chairs have been placed in a circle, and the upright piano has been pushed against the south wall. The recent meeting was a kind of test-run, the preliminary gathering of fishers and cannery workers for a sort of focus group for Brian O'Neill. He returns to the stricken fishing villages on Prince William Sound on a fairly regular basis to update his clients on the progress — or lack of progress — of their case and to answer their questions about possible payout figures. With each year that passes, fewer and fewer Cordova fishers are counting on the Exxon money."

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http://www.enn.com/news/2004-08-27/s_26624.asp