The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear arguments from Chevron and Exxon that coastal wetlands lawsuits filed by two Louisiana parishes should be transferred to federal court — a decision that could ripple across dozens of similar cases seeking billions of dollars in damages.
The oil companies say they were fulfilling federal contracts during World War II, a defense that lower courts have so far rejected. How the high court rules could affect a recent landmark $745 million jury verdict in Plaquemines Parish and shape the future of 42 similar lawsuits accusing oil companies of destroying much of Louisiana’s coastline.
“Chevron is pleased that the Supreme Court has decided to grant review in these cases, and we look forward to presenting our arguments to the court,” Chevron’s counsel, Paul Clement, said in a statement.
Dozens more cases await after verdict holds oil industry responsible for Louisiana coastal damage
Each of the lawsuits filed in state courts accused oil companies of damaging coastal wetlands by dredging canals and leaving behind pollution after they wrapped up their operations, in violation of state coastal regulations that went into effect in 1980.
The question of whether major environmental lawsuits belong in federal or state court has been “arising more and more,” and not just in Louisiana, according to Michael Gerrard, the founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University in New York. “It’s not shocking that the Supreme Court wants to set the ground rules.”
Companies often prefer federal courts, which are seen as friendlier to their interests.
The Supreme Court’s decision to take up the case is the latest in a legal saga that started over a decade ago. The first of the 42 coastal lawsuits, all brought by governments against oil companies and litigated by the law firm Talbot, Carmouche, and Marcello, were filed in 2013. Since then, oil companies have tried three times to move them from state to federal court.
After the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit federal appeals court sent the cases back to state court, a jury awarded Plaquemines Parish $745 million in damages in April.
Vic Marcello, a co-founder of Talbot, Carmouche, and Marcello, said that the court’s decision will affect 11 of the 42 lawsuits brought by six coastal parishes in Louisiana.
Marcello called these the “refinery cases,” where a single company both produced and refined oil — unlike the other lawsuits where production and refining were handled by separate companies. The companies argue these refinery operations, which are linked back to federal directives during World War II, provide the justification for moving the cases to federal court.
Chevron disagrees that the ruling will be limited to just those 11 refinery cases, and noted that it will be up to the court to decide which cases its ruling applies to.
Jury orders Chevron to pay $745 million for Louisiana coastal damage in landmark trial
What’s clear is that the ruling could affect Plaquemines v. Rozel, the case whose trial concluded with the $745 million verdict. Marcello said that if the Supreme Court rules that case belongs in federal court, a federal judge would decide whether to change the state court’s ruling.
Chevron pointed to the verdict in Plaquemines in its appeal to the high court.
“If serving the nation during wartime leads to crippling verdicts from state-court juries driven by parochial concerns,” attorneys wrote in a May 13 brief, “the government will not be able to enlist private-sector help when it needs it most.”
Marcello noted that the Supreme Court won’t rule on whether the companies caused environmental harm, and emphasized that the ruling would be “procedural.”
“This isn't about the merits of our claim,” he said.
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