As reported by Bloomberg, a U.S. District Judge in Manhattan has ruled that New York City has not produced sufficient evidence to proceed with a claim for punitive damages in its lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. for allegedly poisoning city wells with MTBE, a gasoline additive.

The City is seeking $250 million in compensatory damages. It probably would have asked for that much or more in punitive damages if the court had permitted it to do so. We’ll apparently never know, because the city’s lawyers are not commenting on the ruling.