Firms tell court lawsuit was filed too late
A group of major oil and gas companies is urging the First Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a climate-related lawsuit brought by dozens of Puerto Rico municipalities, arguing that the claims were filed too late and rest on legal theories that courts have repeatedly rejected.
In an appellate brief dated August 11, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, Motiva and the American Petroleum Institute said the municipalities waited more than five years after Hurricanes Irma and María devastated the island before suing. That delay, the companies argue, puts the case well outside the four-year federal statute of limitations for antitrust and RICO claims and Puerto Rico’s one-year deadline for tort actions.
Nearly 40 municipalities allege that climate change intensified the 2017 storms and that the companies spent decades downplaying the risks of fossil-fuel use. The defendants counter that the municipalities had enough information to sue in 2017, pointing to widespread media coverage and earlier climate lawsuits filed by other states and cities.
The brief also notes that the municipalities’ own complaint cites reporting from that period, including coverage describing Hurricane María as having “plowed through unusually warm oceans.” The companies say that reference shows the plaintiffs were already aware of the alleged connection between warming seas and the hurricane’s impact.
The companies further reject the municipalities’ effort to invoke fraudulent concealment to extend the filing deadline. They argue that the complaint falls short of the heightened pleading standard for fraud and that the plaintiffs did not need the 2022 “Chen Report”—a study estimating certain oil companies’ contributions to global emissions—to bring their claims. Several defendants are not mentioned in the report, and the brief says the municipalities cannot rely on a single academic study to revive claims the companies consider time-barred.
The filing also says any argument tied to Hurricane Fiona in 2022 is not properly before the court because the municipalities did not raise it in the district court. Fiona appears in the complaint only as an event that worsened existing losses, not as a separate basis for liability.
The case, No. 25-1961, is part of a broader wave of lawsuits in which states and local governments have sought to hold fossil-fuel producers financially responsible for climate-related damages. Most similar suits have been dismissed, with courts generally concluding that state-law claims cannot be used to regulate interstate or global emissions. The companies emphasize those rulings, quoting decisions that found “an overwhelming majority of courts have dismissed these cases for failure to state a claim.”
The underlying lawsuit was filed in 2022 by 37 Puerto Rico municipalities as what they described as the first class-action case of its kind against major fossil-fuel entities under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, a statute more commonly associated with organized crime prosecutions.
The municipalities alleged that the companies engaged in coordinated climate deception that contributed to the severity of the 2017 hurricane season, which caused thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in damage in Puerto Rico. They sought compensation for losses tied to Hurricane María and other 2017 storms, asserting claims under fraud, racketeering, antitrust, product liability and nuisance laws, while also citing threats to the human and constitutional rights of affected communities.
The municipalities named in the lawsuit are Bayamón, Caguas, Loíza, Lares, Barranquitas, Comerío, Cayey, Las Marías, Trujillo Alto, Vega Baja, Añasco, Cidra, Aguadilla, Aibonito, Morovis, Moca, Barceloneta, Camuy, Cataño, Salinas, Adjuntas, Arroyo, Culebra, Dorado, Guaynabo, Hormigueros, Juncos, Lajas, Manatí, Naguabo, Naranjito, Utuado, Villalba, Coamo, Orocovis, Vieques and Yabucoa.
