ExxonMobil Wins Dismissal of South Carolina Litigation Over Climate Change Risks

Paul, Weiss won a significant victory for Exxon Mobil Corporation when a South Carolina state court dismissed a lawsuit brought by the City of Charleston over the risks of climate change. 

In September 2020, Charleston sued 17 fossil fuel companies, including ExxonMobil, alleging that the defendants had misled the public for decades about the risks that fossil fuels pose to the climate, thereby exacerbating climate change.

In November 2023, ExxonMobil and the other defendants filed motions to dismiss, arguing, among other things, that the plaintiff’s claims were precluded and preempted by the Constitution and federal law; they were barred by the statute of limitations; the complaint failed to state viable claims under South Carolina law; and that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the non-resident defendants. ExxonMobil also filed an individual motion to dismiss, arguing that the claims sound in fraud and were insufficiently pled.

Ninth Judicial Circuit Court Judge Roger Young agreed with our arguments, granting our motion to dismiss on federal preclusion and preemption grounds because state law cannot govern disputes regarding interstate emissions. Although he did not need to reach the defendants’ other arguments for dismissal, he went on to do so, further holding that the claims violated the political question doctrine, which prevents federal courts from deciding certain cases deemed to be “political questions”; were time-barred because the plaintiffs have long been on notice of the climate-related risks of fossil fuels; and failed under South Carolina law. The judge also concluded that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over the non-resident defendants because the claims did not arise out of or relate to those defendants’ alleged activities in the state.

Judge Young's dismissal of the Charleston lawsuit is the latest in a series of recent victories Paul, Weiss has secured for ExxonMobil in similar climate cases in state courts. Most recently, on May 16, the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County in Pennsylvania dismissed similar claims asserted by Bucks County on the ground that state law cannot govern such claims. On February 5, the Superior Court of New Jersey dismissed similar claims asserted by the New Jersey Attorney General on federal preemption grounds, and on January 23, the Maryland Circuit Court in Anne Arundel County dismissed nearly identical claims asserted by the city of Annapolis and county of Anne Arundel, also on federal preemption grounds. That decision adopted the reasoning set forth in the July 2024 dismissal of a similar lawsuit by the Maryland Circuit Court in Baltimore. The Delaware Superior Court reached a similar conclusion in January 2024, holding that federal law preempts claims seeking damages arising from emissions that originate outside the state.

The Paul, Weiss team includes litigation partners Ted Wells, Dan Toal and Yahonnes Cleary and counsel Caitlin Grusauskas.