News & Analysis
June 3, 2021
Connecticut’s lawsuit seeking to hold ExxonMobil accountable for lying to consumers about its products’ role in climate change scored an important procedural victory this week, as a federal judge ruled that the case should proceed in state court where it was originally filed.
U.S. District Court Judge Janet Hall became the latest in a growing list of jurists to reject ExxonMobil’s arguments for the case to be heard instead in federal court, where the Big Oil company hopes it will be easier to escape accountability. The loss for ExxonMobil is also the first ruling to be handed down since the U.S. Supreme Court last month ordered a federal appeals court to consider additional arguments for removing Baltimore’s climate damages suit to federal court.
We’re pleased that the Federal District Court saw through Exxon Mobil’s attempt to mischaracterize our complaint and remanded this action back to state court where it belongs.
— AG William Tong (@AGWilliamTong) June 2, 2021
We are one step closer to holding Exxon Mobil accountable for its decades-long campaign of deception. https://t.co/xbHPh5607p
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong filed the lawsuit against ExxonMobil under state consumer protection law last year, citing the oil giant’s “ongoing systematic campaign of lies and deception” about its role in causing climate change.
In her ruling this week, Judge Hall wrote that ExxonMobil’s arguments for removing the case to federal court misconstrue Connecticut’s consumer protection claims to be about “seek[ing] to regulate emissions of pollutants.”
3/ Judge Hall tells Exxon lawyer: "You tell me where the federal government...directed ExxonMobil to falsely make claims about the gasoline they sold to consumers in Connecticut."
— Maxine Joselow (@maxinejoselow) May 21, 2021
Instead, “Connecticut’s claims seek redress for the allegedly deceptive and unfair manner by which ExxonMobil interacted with Connecticut consumers,” she wrote. “In short, Connecticut alleges that ExxonMobil lied to Connecticut consumers, and that these lies affected the behavior of those consumers.”
