Oil Companies Prevail in New York City Global Warming Appeal
New York
In an April 1, 2021 ruling in favor of BP Plc, Chevron Corp, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions should be addressed under federal law and international treaties. This ruling rejected New York City’s effort to hold the five major oil companies liable to help pay the costs of addressing harm caused by global warming by suing under state nuisance law for damages caused by the companies’ “admittedly legal” production and sale of fossil fuels, and said the city’s federal common law claims were displaced
by the federal Clean Air Act.
“Global warming presents a uniquely international problem of national concern,” Circuit Judge Richard Sullivan wrote for a three-judge panel. “It is therefore not well-suited to the application of state law.”
The Appeals court decision upheld a July 2018 dismissal by U.S. District Judge John Keenan in Manhattan.
City of New York v Chevron Corp et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 18-2188
Legal Updates Texas Supreme Court
Texas
owners of the minerals, executed an extension of a 1983 Enron (EOG) lease of the minerals under Las Piedras Ranch. This lease was subsequently transferred to ConocoPhillips. Leon Oscar Sr. died in 2006, survived by three children – Leon, Jr., Minerva and Rosalinda. In 2010, they sued ConocoPhillips and EOG for an accounting and to establish their title to 1/4 mineral interest in the Ranch. They asserted that the oil and gas lease signed by Leon Oscar Sr. was not binding on them as remaindermen following Leon Oscar’s life estate, and that EOG and ConocoPhillips owed them an accounting and payment for 1/4 of the net profits from oil and gas production from the Ranch, from the date of first production. They also sued for prejudgment interest and attorneys’ fees. Rosalinda eventually dismissed her claims. Respondents settled with EOG for $50,000 prior to the trial court’s final judgment. In 2015 the trial court
ConocoPhillips Co. v. Ramirez , No. 17-0822 Instrument interpretation regarding the Las Piedras Ranch in Zapata County, TX was the focus of this case. “Las Piedras Ranch” had been for many years the subject of agreements and conveyances that dealt with the surface and specifically excluded the mineral estate, which was to remain undivided. The minerals were owned by the Ramirez family. One member of that family was Leonor, who died in 1988, owning all of the surface estate and a 1/4 mineral interest in the Ranch. Her will devised to her son Leon Oscar Sr. “all of my right, title and interest in and to Ranch ‘Las Piedras’ … during … his natural life,” and on his death “to his children then living in equal shares.” Her residuary estate was devised equally to her children, Leon Oscar Sr., Ileana and Rodolfo, which at the time the children believed included the mineral estate. In 1990, Leonor’s three children, treated as equal fee
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