Leon v. Exxon Mobil Corp.

The daughter of a woman who died from hyperthermia in Seattle during the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome filed a lawsuit in Washington Superior Court on behalf of her mother’s estate seeking to hold manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of fossil fuels liable for causing the acceleration of climate change and the extreme heat event that caused her mother’s death. The complaint alleged that the defendants had known for decades that fossil fuel combustion was the primary cause of the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and that elevated concentrations of carbon dioxide would increase global temperatures and have “destructive consequences for human and ecological systems.” The complaint alleged that the defendants nonetheless acted to “undermine public certainty about climate science,” to downplay the seriousness of climate change, and to misrepresent their own actions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. The complaint alleged that the defendants’ deceptive conduct delayed measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change and was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s mother’s death. The plaintiff asserted claims of wrongful death and survival under Washington’s wrongful death statute, failure to warn under the Washington Product Liability Act, and public nuisance under Washington’s public nuisance statute. The relief sought included economic and non-economic damages, general and special damages, equitable relief (including a “public education campaign to rectify Defendants’ decades of misinformation” but expressly not including any regulation of fossil fuel activities or greenhouse gas emissions or interference with the defendants’ ability to lobby or petition any government or engage in non-deceptive speech about climate), exemplary or punitive damages, and costs and attorneys’ fees.

The federal district court for the Western District of Washington remanded a climate change-related wrongful death action to state court. The plaintiff seeks to hold manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of fossil fuels liable under product liability and public nuisance theories for her mother’s death during the Pacific Northwest heat dome event in 2021. The court rejected the defendants’ position that there was federal diversity jurisdiction because one of the defendants—a company that owned a pipeline—had been fraudulently joined. The court was satisfied that the pipeline owner was a citizen of Washington. The court further found that the defendants did not meet their “heavy burden” of demonstrating that the company could not be liable for violating Washington’s product liability and public nuisance statutes. The court also concluded that the defendants’ arguments regarding procedural misjoinder were without merit because they raised state law issues that did not implicate federal subject matter jurisdiction. The court denied the plaintiff’s request for fees and costs, finding that removal was not “objectively unreasonable.”

Chevron Corporation and Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (Chevron) filed a notice of their removal to federal court of a wrongful death action filed by the daughter of a woman who died from hyperthermia in Seattle during the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome. All other fossil fuel industry defendants consented to the removal of the litigation. Chevron argued that there was diversity jurisdiction in federal district court because “the single purported Washington Defendant, Olympic Pipe Line Company LLC [(Olympic)], has been fraudulently joined and procedurally misjoined.” Chevron contended that “deception-based claims” could not be asserted against Olympic, which “merely transports fossil fuels—the company does not produce, let alone market to consumers, any fossil fuels,” and that even if a claim could be stated against Olympic, it would not arise out of the same transaction or occurrence as the claims against the other defendants.