Hugo Chavez praises a recent legal victory over Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp., calling a British judge's ruling a defeat for the US.

Judge Paul Walker's March 18 decision voided an order to freeze US$12 billion in assets belonging to Petroleos de Venezuela S.A., or PDVSA.

"I feel like a baseball manager that suddenly has his team in the major leagues, winning against the Yankees,'' said Venezuelan president, speaking to PDVSA employees in a nationally televised address.

updated 8:26 a.m. PT, Mon., Oct. 29, 2007
WASHINGTON - Eighteen years after the worst oil spill in U.S. history, its victims suddenly face the prospect of having a $2.5 billion judgment wrested away from them by the Supreme Court.

A federal appeals court had already cut in half the $5 billion punitive damages award that a jury decided Exxon Mobil Corp. should pay for the huge Exxon Valdez oil spill that fouled more than 1,200 miles of Alaskan coastline in 1989.

The justices said Monday they would consider whether Exxon Mobil, which already has paid $3.4 billion in cleanup costs and other penalties, should face any punitive damages at all.