Description: County of Multnomah's lawsuit seeking to hold fossil fuel companies and other defendants liable for climate change damages.
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County of Multnomah v. Exxon Mobil Corp.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 02/24/2025 Motion Download Motion for protective order filed by Exxon Mobil Corporation. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss second amended complaint filed by Occidental Petroleum Corporation. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss filed by Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss filed by Valero Energy Corporation for lack of personal jurisdiction. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss and special motion to strike under Oregon's anti-SLAPP law filed by American Petroleum Institute. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim filed by Exxon Mobil Corporation. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction filed by Exxon Mobil Corporation. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motions to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction or failure to state a claim filed by Koch Industries. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Motion to dismiss and special motion to strike and joinder in all defense motions filed by Marathon Oil Company and Marathon Oil Corp. 02/04/2025 Motion to Dismiss Download Supplemental motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim to dismiss based on statute of limitations to make more definite and certain filed by Valero Energy Corporation. 10/07/2024 Complaint Download Second amended complaint filed. Multnomah County Added Gas Company and Alleged Front Group as Defendants in Climate Suit. Multnomah County filed an amended complaint in its climate change suit against fossil fuel companies and other defendants. The County added two new defendants: (1) Northwest Natural Gas Company, “the largest provider of gas to Western Oregon and Southwest Washington,” and (2) Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, which the amended complaint alleged was a front group “engaged in a climate deception/misinformation campaign in Oregon to continue to further the business objectives of its carbon polluting funders.” 06/22/2023 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Multnomah County Seeks $1.55 Billion in Climate Change Damages and $50 Billion Abatement Fund in Suit Against Fossil Fuel Industry Defendants. The County of Multnomah filed a lawsuit in Oregon Circuit Court against fossil fuel companies, oil and gas industry trade associations, and the consulting company McKinsey and Company, Inc. (McKinsey), seeking to hold them liable for harms allegedly caused by anthropogenic climate change (ACC) to which the defendants substantially contributed. The County alleged that the defendants executed “a scheme to rapaciously sell fossil fuel products and deceptively promote them as harmless to the environment, while they knew that carbon pollution emitted by their products into the atmosphere would likely cause deadly extreme heat events like that which devastated Multnomah County in late June and early July 2021,” when the region over three consecutive days experienced high temperatures exceeding all previous high temperatures. The County alleged that studies linking the 2021 extreme heat event “corroborated prognoses that the Defendants had since the late 1950s internally forecasted would occur.” The County further alleged that the defendants investigated and internally discussed climate science but did not advise the public of the impacts of fossil fuel usage on the climate. The County alleged that it had incurred in excess of $50 million in actual damages due to extreme heat, wildfire, and other disasters as a result of the defendants’ misconduct and that it would incur future economic damages of at least $1.5 billion. The County also alleged that it would incur substantial costs to prepare for, mitigate, adapt to, and abate the ongoing climate change nuisance. The County asserted claims of intentional and negligent creation of public nuisance, negligence, fraud and deceit, and trespass. In addition to compensatory awards of $50 million for past damages and $1.5 billion for future damages, the County requested the establishment of an abatement fund of at least $50 billion paid for by the defendants. The abatement fund is to be used “for the costs of studying and planning on a countywide scale for the renovations, replacements, retrofits and revised programs that are reasonably necessary to reduce the ongoing harms caused by the Defendants, the implementation of which will reasonably prepare the County and its residents for foreseeable negative impacts arising from the increased frequency and severity of extreme heat, wildfire, drought and other ACC-related consequences.” The County also sought attorneys’ fees, costs and expenses, and pre-judgment and post-judgment interest. -
County of Multnomah v. Exxon Mobil Corp.
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 06/10/2024 Opinion and Order Download Motion to remand granted. Oregon Federal Court Rejected Diversity Jurisdiction as Basis for Keeping Multnomah County Climate Case in Federal Court. In Multnomah County’s lawsuit against fossil fuel companies, the federal district court for the District of Oregon adopted a magistrate judge’s findings and recommendations and granted the County’s motion to remand the lawsuit to state court. The findings and recommendations rejected the companies’ arguments based on federal question jurisdiction and on diversity jurisdiction. The district court was not persuaded that the magistrate judge applied an erroneous standard to the analysis of the companies’ argument that the County fraudulently joined the only non-diverse defendant. In addition, the court found that the complaint sufficiently alleged facts to state causes of action against the non-diverse defendant, even in the absence of an alleged misrepresentation by that defendant. The district court also was not persuaded that the magistrate improperly disregarded a declaration establishing that the non-resident defendant was not involved in the alleged misrepresentations. 04/10/2024 Findings and Recommendations Download Findings and recommendations issued recommending that motion to remand be granted. Magistrate Recommended that Oregon County’s Case Against Fossil Fuel Companies Be Returned to State Court. A magistrate judge in the federal district court for the District of Oregon recommended that the court grant the County of Multnomah’s motion to remand to state court its lawsuit seeking damages from fossil fuel companies for climate change’s impacts on public health and infrastructure. The magistrate judge concluded that the Ninth Circuit’s opinions in other climate change cases brought by local governments against fossil fuel companies foreclosed the companies’ arguments that there was federal question jurisdiction. The magistrate further concluded that there was no diversity jurisdiction because a defendant that was licensed to sell fuel products in Oregon had not been fraudulently joined. The magistrate judge also rejected the contention that there was diversity jurisdiction because that defendant had been “procedurally misjoined.” 11/16/2023 Response Download Response to motion to remand filed by defendants. 11/16/2023 Response Download Response filed by defendant Space Age Fuel, Inc. in opposition to motion to remand. 10/02/2023 Motion Download Motion to remand filed by plaintiff. Multnomah County filed a motion to remand its case to Oregon state court. The County argued that the defendants failed to establish complete diversity of citizenship; the County contended that the defendants failed to show that in-state defendant Space Age Fuel, Inc. was added to defeat jurisdiction. The County also argued that the defendants should be estopped from relitigating their federal officer removal and First Amendment theory of Grable jurisdiction based on the doctrine of offensive non-mutual collateral estoppel, and that, in any event, the defendants failed to show the case was removable on either of those grounds. 08/18/2023 Notice of Removal Download Notice of removal filed by defendants Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A., Inc.