5th Circuit Rules Landowners Have Standing for Claims Related to Oil Companies' Greenhouse Gases
Hurricane Katrina came and went but the landowners class action claims for damages caused by oil companies' greenhouse gases are still standing. On October 16, 2009, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Comer v. Murphy Oil held that plaintiff landowners had standing to assert causes of action for negligence, private and public nuisance, and trespass against oil companies for their release of greenhouse gases, which caused rising sea levels and increased the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina. In reversing the district court's dismissal of the property damage claims, the court ruled that plaintiffs’ Mississippi tort common law claims met the state’s liberal standing requirements, but also the federal standing requirements because their alleged injury could be traced to defendants’ greenhouse gas contributions. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Massachusetts v. EPA played a critical role in the court’s analysis of the standing issue. The court also held that these claims did not present nonjusticiable political questions. While the standing issue is the beginning and not the end of how much liability, if any, the oil companies have for damages resulting from greenhouse gases in this case. This decision may signal the beginning of the expansion of liability for damages directly, or indirectly, related to a person, company or industry’s contributions of greenhouse gases.
