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.”

Lawsuit seeking damages and equitable relief from fossil fuel companies for allegedly causing the death of a woman who died during an extreme heat event in the Pacific Northwest in 2021. 

Leon v. Exxon Mobil Corp.

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Washington Federal Court Sent Climate Change Wrongful Death Suit Back to State Court

Filed

United States of America

Washington

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An aim to achieve a quantifiable outcome within a given time-frame, set by an institution such as a national government.

Policy instruments are techniques or tools used by governing authorities to promote certain policies in order to achieve predetermined goals. Put simply, instruments are how a government tries to achieve its goals, with this taxonomy being focused on national policy instruments.

Risk is the potential for adverse consequences resulting from the dynamic interplay between (climate-related) hazards, exposure, and vulnerability of affected human or ecological systems.

Groups  of people who are adversely affected by climate change or the response to it

A set of principles, processes, and practices that build economic and political power to shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy.

Justice is the ethical and political framework that addresses fairness, including issues of responsibility, rights, and structural inequity.

Renewable energy means all forms of energy produced from renewable sources in a sustainable manner.

Fossil fuel is a generic term for non-renewable energy sources such as coal, fossil gas, and oil (including crude oil, and petroleum products), that can be used for electricity and heat generation. Fossil fuels are hydrocarbons formed from pressurised and heated organic material buried over millions of years.

Molecules in the atmosphere that play a key role in the greenhouse effect by trapping heat radiating from Earth’s surface.

Area of the economy in which actors engage in identical or related activities.

In human systems, the process of adjustment to actual or expected climate change and its effects, in order to moderate harm, increase resilience or exploit beneficial opportunities. In natural systems, the process of adjustment to actual climate change and its effects; human intervention may facilitate adjustment to expected climate change and its effects.

The management and allocation of funds, assets and investments to meet various objectives

Either money or something of monetary value is transferred between two or more organisations, people or countries.

Hot temperature extremes are daily maximum temperatures  that were exceeded on average once in a decade or once in 50 years, and includes heatwaves.

Extreme weather refers to events where a weather variable exceeds (or falls below) a threshold. Meaning it is significantly different from the average or usual weather pattern.

A drought is an extended period of unusually dry weather marked by a significant and sustained lack of precipitation, falling below a specific threshold over a large area for more than a month

Oil is a combustible liquid fossil fuel composed mainly of hydrocarbons, occurring as crude oil and refined into petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene.

Fossil gas, commonly known as natural gas, is a fossil fuel consisting chiefly of methane with smaller amounts of other hydrocarbons and trace gases, found in underground deposits.

This sector involves activities to move goods and people, alongside the storage of products.

This sector creates and distributes information and entertainment through television, radio, print, and digital platforms.

This sector includes firms and individuals offering specialised expertise in fields such as law, accounting, consulting, science and engineering.

Washington Federal Court Sent Climate Change Wrongful Death Suit Back to State Court

Risk

Fossil fuel

Economic sector

Finance