ExxonMobil filed a complaint in the federal district court for the Northern District of Texas against the Massachusetts Attorney General, asking the court to bar enforcement of a civil investigative demand (CID) issued to ExxonMobil in April 2016 and to declare that the CID violated ExxonMobil’s rights under federal and state law. ExxonMobil also moved for a preliminary injunction in the Texas federal court, and said that it would file a protective motion in Massachusetts state court to argue that the court lacked personal jurisdiction. ExxonMobil said it would lodge its objections to the CID in state court but would ask the Massachusetts court to stay its consideration of the objections because the Texas federal court should resolve the issue of the CID’s enforceability in the first instance. ExxonMobil’s complaint in the Texas federal court said that the CID indicated that ExxonMobil was the subject of an investigation under a Massachusetts statute concerning unfair or deceptive acts or practices in trade or commerce. ExxonMobil argued that it could not have violated the statute because it had not sold fossil fuel products, operated retail stores, or sold any form of equity to the general public in Massachusetts in the past five years. ExxonMobil alleged that the CID violated its rights under the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments and Dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and constituted an abuse of process under common law. At the end of June, the Texas federal court granted the parties’ joint motion to enlarge the time period for the Massachusetts Attorney General to respond to the complaint and motion for preliminary injunction “[i]n light of the complex nature of the case and the extensive documents filed by ExxonMobil.”

Action by Exxon Mobil Corporation to bar enforcement of civil investigative demand issued by Massachusetts attorney general and subpoena issued by New York attorney general.


Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Schneiderman

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ExxonMobil Asked Texas Federal Court to Block Civil Investigative Demand from Massachusetts Attorney General

Filed

United States of America

Texas

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