Municipality of San Juan v. Exxon Mobil Corp.

The federal district court for the District of Puerto Rico dismissed the Municipality of San Juan’s claims asserting that fossil fuel industry defendants concealed the relationship between their products and “catastrophic weather phenomena” such as the 2017 hurricanes that caused substantial damage to San Juan. The court rejected San Juan’s efforts to distinguish its case from the <a href="https://www.climatecasechart.com/collections/municipality-of-bayamon-v-exxon-mobil-corp_a564">case</a> brought by other Puerto Rico municipalities, which a sister court in the District of Puerto Rico dismissed on September 11, 2025. The court said that San Juan’s contention that the decision in the other case relied on the absence of further proof that could be obtained in discovery was contradicted by San Juan’s arguments opposing further discovery in its objections to a magistrate judge’s July 2025 report and recommendations. The district court also found that San Juan raised no new arguments to counter the court’s conclusion in the other case that Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, antitrust, and Puerto Rico law claims should be dismissed on statute of limitations grounds against the defendants over whom the court had jurisdiction.

The court granted San Juan an extension to September 29 to respond to the September 11 order to show cause and clarified that the order to show cause was “not an invitation to collaterally attack the decision in the related case” dismissing climate change claims brought by other Puerto Rican municipalities.

On the day it dismissed climate change-related claims brought by multiple Puerto Rican municipalities, the court ordered San Juan to show cause by September 22 why its lawsuit should not also be dismissed given that “the factual and legal questions in this case are virtually identical.”