Thirty-seven Puerto Rico municipalities are waging the first-ever class-action lawsuit to charge major fossil fuel entities — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, the American Petroleum Institute — with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which has famously been used to prosecute organized crime.
The lawsuit points specifically to the role that the companies’ coordinated climate deception played in the 2017 hurricane season that claimed thousands of lives and caused billions of dollars in damage to the U.S. territory.
The municipalities seek to make the companies pay for the damages they suffered during Hurricane Maria and other storms in 2017, which were intensified by global warming. The complaint alleges that the companies violated fraud, racketeering, antitrust, product liability, and nuisance laws, and also describes the real threats to human and constitutional rights of the affected Puerto Rican communities.
The municipalities represented 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.
“It sends a message that large companies have an ethical and moral obligation to humanity and that they have to be careful with how they do their business.”
Ramón Luis Rivera Cruz
Bayamón Mayor
Municipalities of 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, Hormig
Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, Motiva Enterprises, Occidental, BHP, Rio Tinto, American Petroleum Institute (API)
Climate
Private Nuisance, Civil Conspiracy, Products Liability: Failure to Warn, Unjust Enrichment, Consumer Protection, Racketeering, Antitrust, Products Liability: Design Defect, Fraud
