FINDLAW: Daily Opinion Summaries for U.S. Supreme Court – 06/25/08


ADMIRALTY, CIVIL PROCEDURE, CORPORATION & ENTERPRISE LAW, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW, INJURY AND TORT LAW, OIL & GAS LAW, REMEDIES

Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker, No. 07-219
In an action brought against Exxon for economic losses resulting from the Exxon Valdez oil spill, a circuit court ruling remitting the punitive damages award to $2.5 billion is vacated and remanded for further reduction where: 1) the Court was equally divided on the question of whether a shipowner may be liable for punitive damages without acquiescence in the actions causing harm, and thus the circuit court’s opinion is undisturbed on the issue; 2) federal statutory law does not bar a punitive award on top of damages for economic loss; but 3) the award in this case should be limited to an amount equal to compensatory damages, or approximately $500 million.

 

BANKING LAW, CIVIL PROCEDURE, CIVIL RIGHTS, CONTRACTS, INDIAN LAW, LANDLORD TENANT LAW, PROPERTY LAW & REAL ESTATE

Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land & Cattle Co., No. 07-411
In a discrimination, breach of contract, and bad faith suit brought in Tribal Court by an Indian couple against a non-Indian bank, which sold land that it owned, and had previously leased to plaintiffs, on a tribal reservation to non-Indians, judgment and award for plaintiffs is reversed where the tribal court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate a discrimination claim concerning the non-Indian bank’s sale of fee land it owned.

 

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE

Kennedy v. Louisiana, No. 07-343
The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution bars a state from imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child where the crime did not result, and was not intended to result, in the victim’s death.

 

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, EVIDENCE

Giles v. California, No. 07-6053
The theory of forfeiture by wrongdoing accepted by the California Supreme Court, which holds that a criminal defendant forfeits his right to confront the victim’s testimony when the defendant commits an intentional criminal act that makes the victim unavailable to testify, is not a founding-era exception to the Sixth Amendment confrontation right. 

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