County of Maui v. Sunoco LP

Filing Date: 2020
Case Categories:
Principal Laws:
State Law—Nuisance, State Law—Negligence, State Law—Trespass, State Law–Strict Liability
Description: Lawsuit brought by County of Maui against fossil fuel companies to hold them liable for the impacts of climate change on Maui.
  • County of Maui v. Sunoco LP
    Docket number(s): 1:20-cv-00470
    Court/Admin Entity: D. Haw.
    Case Documents:
    Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary
    12/22/2020 Opposition Download Opposition filed to motion to remand.
    12/11/2020 Request Download Joint request to vacate scheduling conference filed.
    11/25/2020 Motion Download Motion to remand filed by County of Maui.
    11/04/2020 Order Download Briefing schedule set for anticipated remand motion and all other proceedings and deadines stayed.
    10/30/2020 Notice of Removal Download Notice of removal filed. Defendants Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. removed the case to federal court on October 30, 2020 and indicated that all other joined and served defendants consented to removal.
  • County of Maui v. Sunoco LP
    Docket number(s): 2CCV-20-0000283
    Court/Admin Entity: Haw. Cir. Ct.
    Case Documents:
    Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary
    10/12/2020 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Maui County Filed Climate Change Suit Against Fossil Fuel Companies. On October 12, 20201, the County of Maui filed a lawsuit in Hawai‘i Circuit Court against fossil fuel companies seeking to hold them liable for climate change impacts. In its complaint, Maui alleged that the defendant companies were “directly responsible for the substantial increase in all CO2 emissions between 1965 and the present” and that but for the defendants’ participation in “denialist campaigns” to mislead the public about the role of their products in causing climate change, the impacts of climate change “would have been substantially mitigated or eliminated altogether.” The adverse climate change impacts alleged to affect Maui include sea level rise and related flooding, inundation, erosion, and beach lose; extreme weather; ocean warming and acidification; increasingly scarce freshwater supplies; loss of habitat for endemic species; and social and economic consequences of these environmental changes. Maui asserted causes of action for public nuisance, private nuisance, strict liability failure to warn, negligent failure to warn, and trespass. The complaint asked the court for compensatory damages, equitable relief, attorneys’ fees, punitive damages, disgorgement of profits, and costs of suit.