Description: Lawsuits filed by City and County of Santa Cruz alleging that fossil fuel companies caused climate change-related injuries.
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County of Santa Cruz v. Chevron Corp.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 01/19/2018 Notice Download Notice of removal filed. Fossil Fuel Companies Removed Santa Cruz Lawsuits to Federal Court. The defendants in the Santa Cruz lawsuits removed those cases to federal court on January 19, 2018. The defendants in the Santa Cruz cases asserted that the plaintiffs’ claims implicated “uniquely federal interests” and were governed by federal common law. The defedants also asserted that the claims “attack federal policy decisions and threaten to upset longstanding federal-state relations, second-guess policy decisions made by Congress and the Executive Branch, and skew divisions of responsibility set forth in federal statutes and the United States Constitution” and therefore necessarily raised substantial and disputed questions of federal law. In addition, the defendants contended that the Clean Air Act completely preempted the claims and that the federal court had jurisdiction pursuant to the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, the federal officer removal statute, the federal enclave doctrine, and the bankruptcy removal statute. -
City of Santa Cruz v. Chevron Corp.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 01/19/2018 Notice Download Notice of removal filed. -
County of Santa Cruz v. Chevron Corp.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/20/2017 Complaint Download Complaint filed. City and County of Santa Cruz Filed Lawsuits Against Fossil Fuel Companies Seeking Damages for Climate Change-Related Injuries. The City and County of Santa Cruz each filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court against 29 fossil fuel companies, alleging that greenhouse gas pollution from production and use of the defendants’ products had played “a direct and substantial role in the unprecedented rise in emissions of greenhouse gas pollution and increased atmospheric CO2 concentrations since the mid-20th century” and that the companies’ production, promotion, and marketing of their products, along with their concealment of the products’ known hazards and “championing of anti-regulation and anti-science campaigns,” had caused injuries to the City and County. The City and County alleged that the defendants were directly responsible for 17.5% of total global emissions of carbon dioxide between 1965 and 2015. The climate change-related injuries alleged by the City and County included drought, extreme precipitation and landslides, heat waves, wild fires, and sea level rise. The causes of action asserted in the complaint were public nuisance, strict liability based on failure to warn and design defect, private nuisance, negligence, and trespass. The City and County sought compensatory damages, equitable relief including abatement of the nuisance, punitive damages, and disgorgement of profits, as well as attorneys’ fees and other costs. -
City of Santa Cruz v. Chevron Corp.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/20/2017 Complaint Download Complaint filed.