Description: Lawsuit brought by the City of Annapolis against fossil fuel companies seeking damages and other relief based on the companies' alleged concealment of information about their products' contribution to climate change.
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City of Annapolis v. BP p.l.c.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 05/19/2021 Memorandum Download Motion for a stay of the proceedings granted. District Court Stayed Briefing of Motion to Remand in Annapolis’s Climate Case. After the Supreme Court’s decision in BP p.l.c. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, the federal district court for the District of Maryland stayed proceedings in a case brought by the City of Annapolis against fossil fuel companies and a trade association. The fossil fuel companies removed the case in March 2021, citing five grounds for removal, including the federal officer removal statute. The City filed a motion to remand on April 23, 2021, and the defendants had not yet filed their response when the court stayed the proceedings. The court noted that it was undisputed that the Fourth Circuit’s determination regarding the fossil fuel companies’ remaining jurisdictional claims in the Baltimore case would have a “direct bearing” on the defendants’ arguments in this case; the district court also said the Fourth Circuit’s decision on these remaining issues “is not a foregone conclusion” since some of the jurisdictional arguments raise “novel questions of law.” Regarding prejudice to the parties, the district court wrote that “the outcome of this lawsuit cannot turn back the clock on the atmospheric and ecological processes that defendants’ activities have allegedly helped set in motion” and that “[t]he urgency of the threat of climate change writ large is distinct from plaintiff’s interest in a speedy determination of federal jurisdiction in this suit.” The court concluded that the guidance the Fourth Circuit would “surely provide” would be “worth the wait.” 05/19/2021 Order Download Motion to stay granted and case stayed pending a ruling by the Fourth Circuit in Mayor & City Council of Baltimore v. BP p.l.c. 05/18/2021 Notice Download Notice of supplemental authority filed by defendants. The defendants filed a notice of supplemental authority to inform the court of the Supreme Court's May 17, 2021 decision in BP p.l.c. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore. 05/13/2021 Memorandum of Law Download Memorandum of law filed in support of plaintiff's motion to remand to state court and for fees and costs incurred as a result of removal. 05/05/2021 Reply Download Reply memorandum of law filed in support of defendants' motion to stay proceedings. 04/23/2021 Motion Download Motion to remand to state court filed by the City of Annapolis. 04/21/2021 Opposition Download Opposition filed by plaintiff to motion to stay. 04/07/2021 Motion Download Motion to stay proceedings filed by defendants. 03/25/2021 Notice of Removal Download Notice of removal filed. On March 25, 2021, defendants Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A., Inc. (Chevron) removed the City of Annapolis’s climate change case against Chevron and other fossil fuel companies to federal court. All other defendants consented to removal. The notice of removal identified the following grounds for removal: Annapolis’s claims necessarily arise under federal law; the claims necessarily raise disputed and substantial federal issues; the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act; the federal officer removal statute; and federal enclave jurisdiction. Chevron also asserted that Annapolis’s allegations that the companies concealed and misrepresented their products’ contributions to climate change were “a strained attempt to evade federal jurisdiction.” Chevron further contended that these allegations “ignore the vast public record establishing that the risks of climate change, including its potential impacts on Maryland, have been discussed publicly since at least the 1950s.” -
City of Annapolis v. BP p.l.c.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 02/22/2021 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Annapolis Sued Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Change Damages. The City of Annapolis filed a lawsuit in Maryland Circuit Court seeking damages and other relief from fossil fuel companies that the City alleged “engaged in a coordinated, multi-front effort” to conceal and discredit information about climate change and their products’ contribution to climate change. The City alleged that it had suffered and would continue to suffer severe injuries due to climate change, including inundation and loss of City property, loss of tax revenue, damage to infrastructure, and increased costs to prepare the City for the impacts of climate change. The City asserted claims of public nuisance, private nuisance, strict liability for failure to warn, negligent failure to warn, trespass, and violations of the Maryland Consumer Protection Act. The complaint alleged that the City sought “to ensure that the parties who have profited from externalizing the consequences and costs of dealing with global warming and its physical, environmental, social, and economic consequences bear the costs of those impacts on Annapolis, rather than the City, taxpayers, residents, or broader segments of the public.” The relief sought includes compensatory damages; equitable relief, including abatement of the nuisances; punitive damages; disgorgement of profits; and attorneys’ fees.