Federal District Judge Silvia Carreño Coll dismissed a lawsuit against a dozen oil giants that 37 municipalities in Puerto Rico accused of augmenting the effects of climate change that exacerbated the damage suffered in the country in the wake of the 2017 hurricanes.

Carreño Coll dismissed the lawsuit, pointing to the lack of jurisdiction over some of the defendant companies, as well as the statute of limitations for the violations alleged in the appeal, which was originally filed in 2022 and amended the following year.

“As to the allegations prescribed under the applicable statutes of limitation, the Court has not examined the merits or their absence, or the legal theories raised by plaintiffs. But the Court is not oblivious to the suffering of the people of Puerto Rico resulting from the 2017 hurricanes. It regularly occurs in dismissing a pleading under the applicable statutes of limitation that we judges remember that ‘it is the duty of all courts of law to ensure that, for the general welfare of the community, difficult cases do not produce incorrect law," Carreño Coll stipulated, citing federal case law.

Carreño Coll’s analysis concluded that, at the time the lawsuit was filed, the terms of one year to claim damages under Puerto Rico’s Civil Code of 1930 - which was in effect until 2022 - and four years under the federal RICO law, which prosecutes violations related to organized crime, had already expired.

In short, the lawsuit - originally filed by 16 mayors - accused the 10 oil companies of conspiring to engage in business practices and misrepresentations about climate change that resulted in the countless damages caused by Hurricane Maria, the most powerful cyclone to pass through Puerto Rico in its modern history. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimates that Maria caused $115 billion in damage, the fourth costliest weather event in U.S. history.

The 10 oil companies sued were Exxon Mobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, Motiva Enterprises, Occidental Petroleum, BHP Group, Rio Tinto, ConocoPhillips and American Petroleum Institute.

In dismissing the complaint, Carreño Coll held that, at the time of the hurricanes, i.e., the damage alleged in the appeal, the municipalities should have had sufficient information to identify the alleged responsible parties, and therefore, it was from then on that the terms under the old Civil Code and the RICO Act began to run.

According to the order, however, the municipalities argued that it was not until March 2022 that they identified the plaintiffs, following the publication of a Columbia University report estimating the carbon footprint caused by companies in the oil sector.

“There is compelling evidence of public knowledge in articles, reports and cases that trace the connection between the defendants and plaintiffs’ claims, including in relation to Puerto Rico. (...) By September 2021, the fourth anniversary of the 2017 hurricanes, plaintiffs knew or should have known that they had suffered substantial harm and whom to sue," the federal judge consigned in the 125-page order.

In the case of Occidental Petroleum, Carreño Coll pointed out that it was not properly summoned, and also did not find that the Federal Court had jurisdiction over BHP Group or Rio Tinto.

“The civil justice system exists to resolve ongoing disputes, not to attack or challenge public policy resolutions that have been widely discussed and openly evaluated since Lyndon B. Johnson was president,” attorney Theodore Boutrous, of the law firm that represented Chevron, said in written statements.

The plaintiff municipalities were 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.