French oil giant Total lost a bid today to overturn its conviction for negligence in the 1999 shipwreck of the Maltese-registered tanker Erika that caused a huge oil slick which polluted the coast of Brittany.
The Paris appeals court confirmed the conviction and a fine of 375,000 euros (500,000 dollars) imposed on Total in the 2008 ruling and boosted compensation awarded to the civil plaintiffs from 192 million to 200 million euros.
Total, France's biggest company by market capitalisation, was found guilty of failing to address maintenance problems when it chartered the rusty 25-year-old tanker.
The Erika was carrying 30,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil when it broke in two and sank off the Brittany coast on December 12, 1999, polluting a large stretch of coastline and killing tens of thousands of seabirds.
The appeals tribunal confirmed the lower court ruling that the owner and manager of the tanker -- along with the Italian certification firm RINA that found it to be seaworthy -- were also at fault.
The ruling in one of France's worst environmental disasters established a legal precedent by recognising that polluters can be held accountable for harming the environment.
French beach resorts were deserted, fishing was halted and shellfish banned from consumption in the aftermath of the oil spill, leaving the local economy on its knees for years. The defendants had all pleaded innocent.
Presiding judge Joseph Valantin said that Total had "committed an error of negligence that is linked to the sinking" of the Erika.
Valentin said the Erika went down as a "direct consequence of the serious rust corrosion" and this was caused by "insufficient maintenance of the ship."
The 80 plaintiffs included the French state, communities affected by the pollution and environmental groups. The extra compensation awarded Tuesday went to communities further inland who missed out on it in the earlier ruling.
The court spared Total the extra charges imposed on the other defendants however, on the grounds that international rules make the ship's owners and operators responsible for oil pollution.
Total had already paid 170 million euros to the plaintiffs.
The court said Total made an error in vetting the ship, but this error was not enough to impose civil responsibility (for the spill) under international conventions, Total's lawyer Daniel Soulez-Lariviere told reporters.
He welcomed this distinction and said the company would study the judgement and decide in the coming days whether to appeal again against the overall conviction.
RINA's lawyer Olivier Metzner told AFP the company would appeal Tuesday's ruling. He said RINA had demanded immunity in the Paris case on the grounds that it was licensed in Malta.