French court may overturn Total oil spill ruling

France’s highest court could annul a verdict against national oil giant Total over a devastating 1999 oil spill off the Brittany coast, a legal source told Reuters on Friday. Total, currently battling to cut off a gas leak at its North Sea Elgin platform off Scotland, was found guilty for damage caused to a vast expanse of coastline and wildlife when the Erika, a 24-year-old tanker it had chartered, broke apart in a 1999 storm, spilling some 20,000 of crude into the Bay of Biscay.