Sea Hawk Seafoods, Inc. v. Alyeska Pipeline Service Co.

This is one of several appeals before this panel relating to the Exxon Valdez oil spill litigation. The subject of this appeal is whether the $5 billion punitive damages verdict against Exxon, and the $5,000 punitive damages award against Hazelwood, should be set aside because of irregularities during jury deliberations. We affirm the district court order that it should not. This decision goes only to the motion to vacate the judgment for irregularities during jury deliberations. It does not purport to decide the issue of the amount of damages, compensatory and punitive, awarded to the plaintiffs.

I. Facts.

This case was tried in three separate phases. The phase with which this appeal is concerned was the punitive damages determination. After the jury awarded $5 billion, defendants filed numerous motions, and appealed from the judgment and from denial of its motion for new trial. While that appeal was pending, newly discovered evidence persuaded the district judge, and *904 us, that remand was appropriate, under Crateo, Inc. v. Intermark, Inc., 2 for consideration in the trial court. We remanded for consideration of the Rule 60(b)(2) motion for relief from judgment based on the…