Exxon Valdez punitive damages to the Supreme Court which capped the damages to US $507.5 million in June, 2008. On August 27, 2008, Exxon Mobil agreed to pay 75% of the US $507.5 million damages ruling to settle the 1989 "Exxon Valdez" oil spill off Alaska. In June 2009, a federal ruling ordered Exxon to pay an additional US$480 million in interest on their delayed punitive damage awards. After repairs, "Exxon Valdez" was renamed "Exxon Mediterranean", then "SeaRiver Mediterranean" in the early 1990s, when Exxon transferred their shipping business to a new subsidiary company, River Maritime Inc. The name was later shortened
Exxon Valdez oil spill official position was that punitive damages greater than $25 million were not justified because the spill resulted from an accident, and because Exxon spent an estimated $2 billion cleaning up the spill and a further $1 billion to settle related civil and criminal charges. Attorneys for the plaintiffs contended that Exxon bore responsibility for the accident because the company "put a drunk in charge of a tanker in Prince William Sound." Exxon recovered a significant portion of clean-up and legal expenses through insurance claims associated with the grounding of the "Exxon Valdez". Also, in 1991, Exxon made a quiet, separate