Case ID: f-appx_338/html/0708-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
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Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In re: EXXON VALDEZ, Polar Equipment Inc., dba Cook Inlet Processing, Inc., Plaintiff-Appellant, Richard Newby; Mike Lopez; Theodore Jewell; Larry Powers; Eagle Fisheries, L.P.A.; Estate of Seward Shea and Steve Copeland; Sea Hawk Seafoods, Inc.; Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel, Co-Lead Counsel or Lead Trial Counsel; Other Plaintiffs in Consolidated Cases, Plaintiffs-Appellees, and Nautilus Marine Enterprises, Inc., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Exxon Mobil Corp.; Exxon Shipping Co., Defendants-Appellees. In re: Exxon Valdez, Polar Equipment Inc., dba Cook Inlet Processing, Inc., Plaintiff-Appellant, and Nautilus Marine Enterprises, Inc., Plaintiff-Appellant, Richard Newby; Mike Lopez; Theodore Jewell; Larry Powers; Eagle Fisheries, L.P.A.; Estate of Seward Shea and Steve Copeland; Sea Hawk Seafoods, Inc.; Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel, Co-Lead Counsel or Lead Trial Counsel; Other Plaintiffs in Consolidated Cases, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. Exxon Mobil Corp.; Exxon Shipping Co., Defendants-Appellees.
    Nos. 07-35794, 07-35796.
    United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.
    Argued and Submitted June 24, 2009.
    Filed July 24, 2009.
    Thomas David Copley, Keller Rohrbaek, LLP, Seattle, WA, David W. Oesting, Esquire, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, Anchorage, AK, Darcy Shearer, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP, Seattle, WA, Phillip Paul Weidner, Esquire, Anna Cristina Weid-ner-Tafs, Esquire, Phillip Paul Weidner & Associates, APC, Anchorage, AK, Bruce Eric Gagnon, Esquire, Atkinson Conway & Gagnon, Anchorage, AK, Edward Paul Weigelt, Jr., Senior Counsel, Law Offices of Edward P. Weigelt, Jr., Lynnwood, WA, for Plaintiff-Appellant.
    Charles Willard Coe, Esquire, Law Office of Charles W. Coe, Anchorage, AK, Thomas David Copley, David W. Oesting, Esquire, Darcy Shearer, Kevin Sullivan, Sullivan & Thoreson, Seattle, WA, John G. Young, Young Denormandie, PC, Seattle, WA, Lloyd Benton Miller, Sonosky, Cham-gers, Sachse, Miller & Munson, Anchorage, AK, for Plaintiffs-Appellees.
    John F. Clough, III, Esquire, Douglas J. Serdahely, Esquire, for Defendants-Appel-lees.
    
      Before: SCHROEDER, KLEINFELD, and THOMAS, Circuit Judges.
   MEMORANDUM

The appellants, Polar Equipment and Nautilus Marine, were two of the original plaintiffs in this litigation, but they split off from the rest of the plaintiffs’ class in 2003 to pursue their claims against Exxon individually. As part of their 2003 agreement with the plaintiffs’ class, appellants agreed to release their rights to share in any punitive damages recovery “awarded to and collected by” the class. Appellants now contend that the 2003 agreement should not be given effect because their 2006 settlement with Exxon, to which the plaintiffs’ class was not a party, said that Exxon “reassigned and restored” Polar Equipment’s and Nautilus Marine’s rights to share in the class recovery of punitive damages.

In the 2003 agreement with the plaintiffs’ class, however, Polar Equipment and Nautilus Marine agreed to be “bound by the terms and conditions of Order No. 351 and Order No. 352 for all purposes,” and they agreed to “[wjaive, relinquish and discharge any right of any nature whatsoever which either of them may have to participate in any distribution of or receive any share of any recoveries by Plaintiffs pursuant to either the Amended Plan of Allocation approved ... [in] Order No. 351, or the Amended Plan of Distribution of Allocations to the Processor Claim Category approved by the Court in Order No. 352.”

In return for giving up their rights to share in any punitive damages recovery by the plaintiffs’ class, these appellants were allowed to pursue then- claims against Exxon. They settled those claims in 2006 for more than eight million dollars. The appellants do not have to share any of that recovery with the plaintiffs’ class but, in return, they remain bound by the terms of the 2003 agreement that they will not share in the punitive damages collected by the rest of the plaintiffs. The appellants’ 2006 settlement with Exxon did not affect the validity of the appellants’ 2003 settlement with the plaintiffs’ class. See Leroy Land Dev. v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, 939 F.2d 696, 698-99 (9th Cir.1991).

The district court correctly so held.

AFFIRMED. 
      
       This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.