Description: Action to compel Harvard Corporation to divest from fossil fuel companies.
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Harvard Climate Justice Coalition v. President & Fellows of Harvard College
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/06/2016 Opinion and Order Download Opinion and order issued affirming dismissal. Massachusetts Appellate Court Affirmed Dismissal of Divestment Action Against Harvard. The Massachusetts Appeals Court affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a Harvard University student group and its members to compel the university to divest its endowment’s investments in fossil fuel companies. The appellate court agreed with the Superior Court that the students had failed to demonstrate special standing to challenge management of charitable funds. The appellate court cited the Superior Court’s rejection of the students’ argument that they had standing based on negative impacts that fossil fuel investments had on academic freedom and education at the university. The appellate court also agreed with the court below that it was not appropriate to recognize a new tort of “intentional investment in abnormally dangerous activities” advocated by the plaintiffs on behalf of future generations. The appellate court quoted the Superior Court in concluding that the students “have brought their advocacy, fervent and articulate and admirable as it is, to a forum that cannot grant the relief they seek.” -
Harvard Climate Justice Coalition v. President & Fellows of Harvard College
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/17/2015 Memorandum of Decision Download Memorandum of decision and order issued allowing motion to dismiss. The Massachusetts Superior Court dismissed the action. The court ruled that the individual students did not have standing to claim mismanagement of charitable assets based on their status as students because their rights as students were “widely shared” with thousands of other Harvard students and were not “specific” and “personal” enough to endow them with standing. The court also rejected the students’ argument that Harvard’s investment in fossil fuels interfered with personal rights because it diminished their education in fields such as environmental law and because Harvard’s funding of “climate change denial” chilled academic freedom and impeded the students’ association with “like-minded colleagues.” The court noted that these impacts were not “personal” to the plaintiffs since numerous other students would be affected. The court also found that the allegations were too speculative and conclusory. The court also dismissed the claim of “intentional investment in abnormally dangerous activities.” The court said that it was not its place either to recognize this proposed new tort action or to extend existing law on standing to permit the plaintiffs to litigate on behalf of “Future Generations,” as they sought to do. The court also said that an “overarching” problem with the action was the absence of limitations on the subject matter and scope of this type of lawsuit. The court noted that while the student plaintiffs “fervently believe” that climate change poses the most serious threat to the world, other students would just as fervently believe that some other cause posed a serious threat. 11/19/2014 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Harvard Climate Justice Coalition and individual Harvard students filed a lawsuit against the President & Fellows of Harvard College (Harvard Corporation) and Harvard Management Company, Inc., which oversees investment of Harvard Corporation’s endowment. Plaintiffs sought to compel the university to divest from fossil fuel companies. The complaint alleged counts of mismanagement of charitable funds and intentional investment in abnormally dangerous activities. In particular, plaintiffs alleged that the university’s investment in fossil fuel companies was a breach of its fiduciary and charitable duties as a public charity and nonprofit corporation because such investment contributed to climate change and other harms to “the public’s prospects for a secure and healthy future.” The complaint also alleged that climate change would cause damage to the university’s physical campus. Harvard Climate Justice Coalition brought the lawsuit on its own behalf and as next friend to “Plaintiffs Future Generations, individuals not yet born or too young to assert their rights but whose future health, safety, and welfare depends on current efforts to slow the pace of climate change.”