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.
-
City of Annapolis v. BP p.l.c.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/27/2022 Memorandum Opinion Download Temporary stay of remand order continued until further notice. Remand Order Temporarily Stayed in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Climate Cases. The federal district court for the District of Maryland temporarily stayed its order remanding to state court the climate change cases brought by the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. Although the court found that the fossil fuel industry defendants “have not evidenced a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their appeal,” the court found that a temporary stay was warranted due to uncertainty regarding the timing of the Supreme Court’s consideration of the petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the Tenth Circuit’s affirmation of the remand order in Colorado local governments’ climate change case. The district court cited the potential for a state court to reach “dispositive and irreversible outcomes” before the Supreme Court rendered a decision in the Colorado local governments’ case, given that the Supreme Court had invited the Solicitor General to provide its views on the Tenth Circuit petition without setting a deadline for the Solicitor General to submit its briefing. The district court therefore stayed the remand orders until further notice. 10/24/2022 Reply Download Reply memorandum of law filed in support of motion to stay execution of the remand order. 10/18/2022 Opposition Download Memorandum of law filed by City of Annapolis in opposition to motion to stay execution of remand order. 10/11/2022 Motion Download Motion to stay execution of remand order filed by defendants. 10/11/2022 Notice of Appeal Download Notice of appeal filed. 09/29/2022 Memorandum Opinion Download Defendants' motion to stay proceedings denied and motion to remand granted. Federal Court Sent Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Climate Cases Back to State Court. The federal district court for the District of Maryland granted the City of Annapolis’s and Anne Arundel County’s motions to remand to state court their climate change cases against fossil fuel industry defendants. The court found that the Fourth Circuit’s 2022 opinion affirming the remand order in Baltimore’s climate case foreclosed all but two of the defendants’ arguments for federal jurisdiction in these two cases. Regarding the first remaining argument, the court found that the defendants’ “materially expanded evidentiary record” in support of federal-officer removal did not address the deficiency the Fourth Circuit identified in Baltimore’s case—that the record did not establish that the defendants’ alleged concealment of the climate harms of fossil fuels was related to the defendants’ purported federally authorized actions. In their second remaining argument, the defendants contended that the case satisfied the requirements for Grable jurisdiction because the case necessarily implicated First Amendment concerns by targeting speech on matters of “public concern.” The district court declined to extend the “slim category” of Grable jurisdiction cases to include state tort claims involving speech on matters of public concern, finding that “[s]uch an expansive holding would raise federalism concerns and counter the mandate for federal courts to ‘strictly construe’ removal statutes.” The district court also denied the defendants’ motions to stay the proceedings pending the Supreme Court’s resolution of the Baltimore case (where a petition for writ of certiorari seeking review of the Fourth Circuit’s affirmance of the remand order was anticipated). The court stayed execution of the remand order for 30 days but said it was not amenable to a further stay on the present record. The parties were directed to establish a briefing schedule for any request for an additional stay pending appeal that would allow the court a week to rule on the request before the 30-day stay expired. 09/28/2022 Letter Download Defendants filed letter requesting that court defer execution of remand order. 09/28/2022 Statement Download Statement filed by plaintiff stating position that court should not stay execution of remand order. 09/06/2022 Reply Download Supplemental reply filed in support of motion to remand. 08/16/2022 Opposition Download Opposition to plaintiff's motion to remand filed. 07/15/2022 Memorandum of Law Download Supplemental memorandum of law filed by City of Annapolis in support of motion to remand to state court. 06/27/2022 Order Download Court reserved ruling on defendants' motion to stay proceedings. Parties to Proceed with Briefing of Remand Motions in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County Climate Cases. The federal district court for the District of Maryland said it would reserve ruling on fossil fuel companies’ motions to stay proceedings in climate change cases brought by the City of Annapolis and Anne Arundel County until briefing on the plaintiffs’ motions to remand was complete. The companies had asked the court to stay proceedings pending their petition for writ of certiorari in the Baltimore case and any subsequent merits review by the Supreme Court. The district court in the Anne Arundel County and Annapolis cases reopened the cases on April 27, 2022 after the Fourth Circuit affirmed the remand order in Baltimore’s case. In its letter order reserving its ruling on the motions to stay, the district court acknowledged the “potential expenditure of unnecessary time and resources associated with” briefing the remand motions, given uncertainty about the certiorari petitions, but expressed a desire “to be well positioned to advance the cases expeditiously if certiorari is denied.” 06/22/2022 Reply Download Reply memorandum of law filed in support of defendants' motion to stay proceedings. 06/08/2022 Opposition Download Opposition filed to defendants' motion to stay proceedings. 05/25/2022 Motion Download Motion to stay proceedings filed by defendants. 05/12/2022 Order Briefing schedule approved. 05/11/2022 Not Available Download Parties filed joint proposal and [proposed] order regarding briefing schedule on motion for stay and motion for remand. 04/27/2022 Order Download Case reopened and stay lifted. 04/21/2022 Not Available Download Joint submission filed regarding Fourth Circuit decision in Baltimore. 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.