French oil giant Total SA (FP.FR) Tuesday lost a bid to overturn a Paris court decision finding it guilty of negligence over a 1999 shipwreck and oil spill off the coast of Brittany .

The Paris appeals court confirmed the conviction and a fine of 375,000 euros ($500,000) that was imposed on Total in the 2008 ruling.

Total was found guilty of failing to take into account the age of the tanker Erika and of ignoring maintenance problems when it chartered the rusty 25-year-old vessel.

The Erika was carrying 30,000 metric tons of heavy fuel oil when it broke in two and sank off the Brittany coast Dec. 12, 1999 , polluting a large stretch of coastline and killing tens of thousands of seabirds.

The Paris criminal court had also ordered Total and three other parties in its initial ruling in 2008 to pay EUR192 million in compensation to civil plaintiffs in the case.

The appeals tribunal confirmed the lower court ruling that the owner and manager of the tanker--along with the Italian RINA certification firm that found the tanker to be seaworthy--were also at fault.

The ruling in one of France 's worst environmental disasters established a legal precedent by recognizing that polluters can be held accountable for harming the environment.
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