The dealers sued in 1991 claiming that predecessor company Exxon Corp. overcharged them for gasoline...
A part of Exxon Mobil Corp.'s appeal of $500 million verdict will be heard in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company, had appealed a 2001 verdict in a class-action lawsuit involving about 10,000 current and former dealers.
The court said Tuesday that it would consider next year whether the federal trial court had jurisdiction over any individual claims of less than $50,000 -- the minimum required in federal court when the lawsuit was filed in 1991.
According to one of the dealers' lawyers, the jurisdiction question affects only about 10 percent of the dealers. The average claim is $130,000, and most of the dealers have won and can now be paid because the high court declined to hear any other part of Exxon Mobil's appeal.
The dealers sued in 1991 claiming that predecessor company Exxon Corp. overcharged them for gasoline for several years under a program designed to encourage customers to pay using credit cards.
Shares of Exxon Mobil fell 42 cents, to $49.37, in trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
