{"id":7802,"date":"2022-02-23T17:17:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-23T22:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/?p=7802"},"modified":"2022-02-23T17:17:23","modified_gmt":"2022-02-23T22:17:23","slug":"in-a-first-for-climate-nuisance-claims-a-hawaii-state-court-allowed-honolulu-to-proceed-with-its-case-against-fossil-fuel-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2022\/02\/23\/in-a-first-for-climate-nuisance-claims-a-hawaii-state-court-allowed-honolulu-to-proceed-with-its-case-against-fossil-fuel-companies\/","title":{"rendered":"In a first for climate nuisance claims, a Hawai\u2018i State Court allowed Honolulu to proceed with its case against fossil fuel companies"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

By Korey Silverman-Roati<\/em><\/p>\n

Background<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Starting in 2017, cities, counties, and states across the United States have filed claims (see here<\/a> and here<\/a>) in state courts against fossil fuel companies seeking redress for the climate harms their products have caused. Many of these cases asserted nuisance and other tort law claims. (More recently, states and municipalities have asserted claims under consumer protection laws.). The plaintiffs in these cases allege that the companies knew the harms their products would cause, that the companies failed to warn and misled the public about those harms, and that the products have caused damages in the form of rising seas, more frequent and severe storms, heat waves, and wildfires, among other climate change impacts.<\/p>\n

\"Oil<\/p>\n

Since 2017, these cases have been mired in a nearly five-year fight over whether they should be heard in state or federal court. Fossil fuel company defendants want the cases heard in federal court, where they can argue that the cases should be quickly dismissed on the grounds that federal common law climate claims are displaced by the Clean Air Act. Local and state government plaintiffs want the cases to remain in state court, where they can argue that climate nuisance claims are similar to past common law efforts to hold companies accountable for misleading the public about their products\u2019 harms, like those against tobacco companies. The vast majority of courts that have ruled on this issue have said the climate claims should remain in state court. Yesterday, for the first time, a state court in Hawai\u2018i issued a ruling denying a motion to dismiss in a climate nuisance case, a key step in the case\u2019s progression towards trial.<\/p>\n

The Hawai\u2018i Circuit Court\u2019s decision<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Hawai\u2018i trial court denied fossil fuel companies\u2019 motion to dismiss the City and County of Honolulu\u2019s climate change lawsuit<\/a> for failure to state a claim. The court described the case as \u201can unprecedented case for any court, let alone a state court trial judge,\u201d but concluded that it was \u201cstill a tort case\u201d and \u201cbased exclusively on state law causes of action,\u201d primarily failures to disclose, failures to warn, and deceptive marketing.<\/p>\n

The court distinguished the Second Circuit\u2019s decision in City of New York v. Chevron Corp.<\/em><\/a>, which affirmed the dismissal of state-law public nuisance, private nuisance, and trespass claims. The Second Circuit framed New York City\u2019s claims as targeting \u201clawful commercial activity\u201d in a way that would compel development of pollution control measures, thereby regulating cross-border emissions. The defendants in Honolulu\u2019s case similarly argued that the claims sought de facto<\/em> regulation of global fossil fuel emissions. The Hawai\u2018i court, however, found Honolulu\u2019s framing of its claims as traditional tort law claims to be \u201cmore accurate.\u201d The court said the causes of action were \u201cwell recognized\u201d and \u201ctethered to existing well-known elements\u201d such as duty, breach of duty, causation, and limits on actual damages. The court wrote that \u201c[a]s this court understands it, Plaintiffs do not ask for damages for all <\/em>effects of climate change; rather, they seek damages primarily for the effect of climate change allegedly caused<\/em> by Defendants\u2019 breach of long-recognized duties\u201d; therefore, the defendants\u2019 liability, if any, would result \u201cfrom alleged tortious conduct, and not on lawful conduct in producing and selling fossil fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given Honolulu\u2019s framing of the claims, the Hawai\u2018i court concluded that neither the Clean Air Act nor federal common law preempted the claims. First, the court found \u201cno unique federal interest\u201d in the alleged failure to disclose harms or in the alleged deceptive promotion of fossil fuels. The court cited states\u2019 \u201cbroad authority to protect residents\u2019 health, safety, property, and general welfare,\u201d and said this power \u201cwas not to be preempted unless that was the clear and manifest purpose of Congress.\u201d Citing Massachusetts v. EPA<\/em>, the court stated that states have \u201ca legitimate interest in combatting the adverse effects of climate change.\u201d Second, the court found no \u201csignificant conflict\u201d between any \u201cconcrete and specific\u201d federal policy or interest and the application of Hawai\u2018i law. Third, the court found that at this stage of the litigation the defendants had made \u201cno concrete showing that a damages award in this case would somehow regulate emissions.\u201d The court noted that Honolulu had \u201crepeatedly\u201d conceded that the case \u201cdoes not impact Defendants from producing and selling as much fossil fuels as they are able, as long as Defendants make the disclosures allegedly required, and do not engage in misinformation.\u201d The court stated that construing damages awards in tort cases as impermissible regulation would intrude on \u201chistoric powers of state courts\u201d and potentially preempt common types of cases such as class action lawsuits, products liability cases, cases against pharmaceutical companies, and consumer protection litigation.<\/p>\n

In addition, the court rejected contentions that the out-of-state or international character of some of the conduct at issue made preemption appropriate, stating that \u201c[w]ithout the power to hold tortfeasors liable for out-of-state conduct, municipalities such as Honolulu could be hard-pressed to seek redress.\u201d On this topic, the court also noted that it would address motions to dismiss on personal jurisdiction or due process grounds in separate orders, and that the court hoped to finish these remaining rulings \u201cthis week or next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding defendants\u2019 arguments that this case and other climate change cases are based on \u201cartful pleading,\u201d the court stated: \u201cRespectfully, we often see artful pleading in the trial courts, where new conduct and new harms first arise.\u201d The court continued: \u201cHere, the causes of action may seem new, but in fact are common. They just seem new\u2014due to the unprecedented allegations involving causes and effects of fossil fuels and climate change. Common law historically tries to adapt to such new circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court noted that its ruling was \u201ca brief outline of the court\u2019s analysis\u201d and directed the parties to follow Hawai\u2018i\u2019s procedural rules to formalize the ruling, which will involve Honolulu, as the prevailing party, preparing an order in accordance with the ruling and attempting to secure approval from the other parties; parties who object to the draft order must submit a statement of objections and reasons for objection as well as their own proposed order. The court encouraged the parties to add \u201cparticular findings, analysis, or citations\u201d to the outline, \u201cif necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full decision here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Implications for climate cases against fossil fuel companies<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This decision is a significant win for the plaintiffs. As noted above, this is the first instance of a state court ruling on a motion to dismiss in these climate nuisance cases filed in state court, and the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. In doing so, the court affirmed many of the plaintiffs\u2019 arguments that the claims are straightforward common law claims. Next, the court will rule on motions to dismiss on personal jurisdiction and due process grounds. If the plaintiffs are successful, the case will move towards discovery and trial, which could present an opportunity for Honolulu to unearth evidence about fossil fuel company knowledge of the harms their products cause. Through investigative journalism<\/a>, the public is already aware that fossil fuel companies have known for decades that burning fossil fuels would cause significant climate harms. Further evidence produced through discovery and trial could add more detail to this historical record and bolster plaintiffs\u2019 claims.<\/p>\n

While this case proceeds, the fight over whether these types of claims should be heard in federal or state court continues. The defendants\u2019 appeal of the remand order in Honolulu\u2019s case is still pending in the Ninth Circuit, and the fossil fuel industry defendants in similar cases have uniformly removed them to federal court. The majority of federal district and appellate courts that analyzed the jurisdictional issues have ruled that they should be heard in state court, with the First, Fourth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits upholding remand orders in the initial round of appeals. During this process, the parties litigated over the extent to which the decision to remand the cases to state court was reviewable on appeal. The Supreme Court weighed in \u2013 ruling in May 2021<\/a> that appellate courts could review all aspects of the decision to remand. Since that decision, the Tenth Circuit reviewed six grounds for removal in a case brought by Boulder County and two other plaintiffs and ruled this month that none of them support federal removal jurisdiction, affirming the decision to send the case back to state court<\/a>. The First, Second, Third, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits are expected to issue decisions in the coming months on the jurisdictional issues. If the plaintiffs succeed, we are likely to see more state courts around the country weighing in on the merits of these cases and whether they should proceed to discovery and trial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Korey Silverman-Roati Background Starting in 2017, cities, counties, and states across the United States have filed claims (see here and here) in state courts against fossil fuel companies seeking redress for the climate harms their products have caused. Many of these cases asserted nuisance and other tort law claims. (More recently, states and municipalities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5673],"tags":[75,65737,65696,68630,5674,68631],"class_list":{"0":"post-7802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-litigation","7":"tag-climate-change","8":"tag-climate-law","9":"tag-climate-litigation","10":"tag-climate-nuisance","11":"tag-common-law","12":"tag-fossil-fuel-companies","13":"czr-hentry"},"yoast_head":"\nIn a first for climate nuisance claims, a Hawai\u2018i State Court allowed Honolulu to proceed with its case against fossil fuel companies - Climate Law Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.law.columbia.edu\/climatechange\/2022\/02\/23\/in-a-first-for-climate-nuisance-claims-a-hawaii-state-court-allowed-honolulu-to-proceed-with-its-case-against-fossil-fuel-companies\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In a first for climate nuisance claims, a Hawai\u2018i State Court allowed Honolulu to proceed with its case against fossil fuel companies - Climate Law Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Korey Silverman-Roati Background Starting in 2017, cities, counties, and states across the United States have filed claims (see here and here) in state courts against fossil fuel companies seeking redress for the climate harms their products have caused. 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