Se qualcuno lamentava lo ""scadimento"" delle ""motivazioni" dell'alcolista cocainomane texano e della banda di affaristi assassini che ha messo su di continuare a rimestare il il sanguinoso pantano iracheno......
Si direbbe che ora ci sono altri 11.800 milioni di ""motivazioni""...
Exxon Mobil loses $11.8 B suit
Jury also awards Alabama $63M in compensatory damages in suit over disputed natural gas royalties.
November 14, 2003: 3:01 PM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - An Alabama jury Friday awarded the state $11.8 billion in a lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. over royalties for offshore natural gas leases, an Exxon spokesman said.
The jury also awarded the state $63 million in compensatory damages. Exxon Mobil expects to appeal the decision, which spokesman Bob Davis called "unjustified and excessive."
The largest publicly traded oil company in the world has 30 days to file the appeal.
"Our company did not engage in fraud and it is our belief that fraud was never established during the trial," Davis said.
Alabama sued Exxon Corp. in 1999, before the company's merger with Mobil, alleging it defrauded the state out of natural gas royalties. In December, Alabama's Supreme Court reversed a $3.5 billion jury verdict against the Irving, Texas, company, sending the case back to a lower court for retrial.
One analyst said Exxon Mobil shareholders have no cause for concern yet.
"This is only the first round," said Fadel Gheit of Oppenheimer & Co. He has a "buy" rating on Exxon Mobil and owns some of its stock.
"I would not be depositing my check if I was Alabama," Gheit said. "Any celebration is premature."
The company said it has paid more than $1 billion in royalty and lease payments to the state since 1993, and the amount in dispute is less than 5 percent of that figure.
In a statement, Exxon Mobil said it has "repeatedly" told Alabama of its payment method and calculation of royalties and that the state had indicated any dispute over methodology would be resolved in the audit process.
Exxon Mobil, with its enormous wealth and relentless legal defense, has a penchant for successful appeals, even those pertaining to the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, in which an Exxon tanker ran aground and spilled 11 million gallons of crude into Alaska's unspoiled Prince William Sound.
In August, for instance, an appellate court rejected a $4 billion punitive damages award against the company. It was the second time in a year the appellate court asked the Anchorage District Court to reconsider what Exxon should pay beyond $287 million in actual damages.
Shares of Exxon Mobil (XOM: Research, Estimates) were down 28 cents, or less than 1 percent, at $35.99 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.