Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp.
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Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corp., No. 4:08-cv-01138 (N.D. Cal.), is a lawsuit filed on February 26, 2008, in a United States district court. The suit, based on the common law theory of nuisance, claims monetary damages from the energy industry for the destruction of Kivalina, Alaska by flooding caused by climate change. The damage estimates made by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Government Accountability Office are placed between $95 million and $400 million. This lawsuit is an example of greenhouse gas emission liability.[1]
Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corporation, et al. | |
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Court | United States District Court for the Northern District of California |
Full case name | Native Village of Kivalina v. ExxonMobil Corporation, et al. |
Decided | September 30, 2009 |
Docket nos. | 4:08-cv-01138 |
Citation(s) | Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., et al. |
Holding | |
Kivalina claims posed non-justiciable political questions and that the plaintiffs "otherwise lack[ed] standing under Article III of the United States Constitution." | |
Court membership | |
Judge(s) sitting | Saundra Brown Armstrong |
The suit was dismissed by the United States district court on September 30, 2009, on the grounds that regulating greenhouse emissions was a political rather than a legal issue and one that needed to be resolved by Congress and the Administration rather than by courts.[2] An appeal was filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in November 2009.[3] In September 2012, the panel of appeals judges decided not to reinstate the case.[4] The city appealed the court of appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court and on May 20, 2013 the Supreme Court justices decided not hear the case, effectively ending the city's legal claim.[5]