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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 25, 1992                   TAG: 9201250152
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Short

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U.S. COURT: AMOCO MUST PAY FOR SPILL OFF FRANCE

Amoco must pay about $200 million in damages for the devastating 1978 oil spill off the coast of France from its supertanker Amoco Cadiz, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

The court called the spill "a disaster waiting to happen."

Attorney Barry Kingham, who represented French villages and towns, called the decision "a complete and total victory."

Amoco Corp. and the French had both appealed a lower court's $155 million judgment against Amoco. The company argued the French never proved who was to blame for the accident.

On March 16, 1978, the ship lost its steering in hurricane-force winds and ran aground off northwest France, spilling 68 million gallons of oil and fouling about 100 miles of Brittany's wildlife-rich coast.

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