State Court Dismisses Climate Change Tort Lawsuit

About a month ago, one of the myriad climate change tort lawsuits brought by state and local governments against major fossil fuel producers was dismissed by a state court judge in Baltimore, Maryland. (These lawsuits have brought state law tort claims, both under common law and individual state statutes, seeking to hold fossil fuel producers liable for the impact of climate change.) This decision--which will likely be appealed--is the first time that a state court has dismissed in full these type of claims. While federal courts have previously dismissed similar lawsuits, state courts in a number of jurisdictions have permitted these cases to proceed into the discovery stage of litigation. That a state court--considered a more favorable forum for this type of litigation--has now dismissed a lawsuit is highly significant.