Exxon Mobil accepts $1.1B settlement

MIAMI, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. will pay a group of service station dealers $1.075 billion in a 15-year-old pricing lawsuit.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold in Miami granted preliminary approval Thursday in the lawsuit, which arose out of Exxon's Discount for Cash program during 1983-1994.

Exxon had promised its service station dealers a discount in the wholesale price of motor fuel, a plaintiff's lawyer said. After a February 2001 trial jurors found Exxon breached its obligation to provide the discount, and fraudulently concealed the breach.

Exxon appealed the verdict all the way to the Supreme Court, but the high court denied Exxon's last appeal in June 2005. The settlement was achieved as a court-appointed "special master" was in the process of assessing damages against Exxon on individual dealer claims.

Nearly 11,000 class members will be mailed a notice scheduling a hearing date on April 5 for the court's consideration of final approval of the settlement.

The $1.075 billion payment represents payment in full of all compensatory damages and pre-judgment interest through Oct. 31, 2005, on all valid claims filed by Dec. 19, 2005.