Since early this year, the nation has been consumed by the coronavirus. While all eyes are appropriately on the virus, a case is pending in the Ninth Circuit that has the potential to restore balance to the nation’s legal system and impact a variety of industries across the country.
In City of Oakland v. BP Plc, the City of Oakland alleges that by producing the energy Americans need and use every day, oil and gas companies knowingly created the public nuisance of global climate change.
This appeal is part of a growing trend of liability expansion across the nation. Public nuisance lawsuits and the lawyers behind them aim to hold industry “responsible” for climate change, environmental spills and littering, the opioid epidemic, vaping, and now—the Covid-19 outbreak. In late April, a first-of-its-kind lawsuit was filed against Smithfield Foods in federal court blaming the company for contributing to the spread of Covid-19.
Learn more about the alarming expansion of public nuisance law.
This “Insight” piece was originally published online by Bloomberg Law on May 14, 2020. It was reproduced with permission from © 2020 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc. (800-372-1033) www.bloombergindustry.com.