Katrina victims get OK to sue polluters over global warming

A federal appeals court in New Orleans has given the go-ahead for a groundbreaking class-action lawsuit over global warming to proceed.

The case, titled Ned Comer, et al. v. Murphy Oil USA, et al. [pdf], involves a group of residents and landowners along the Mississippi Gulf Coast who suffered severe property damage during Hurricane Katrina. They allege that the defendants — energy, fossil fuels and chemical companies — emitted greenhouse gases that contributed to global warming, which in turn caused a rise in sea levels that increased the storm’s ferocity.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi originally sided with the defendants, who argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing and said their claims presented political questions that did not properly belong in court. The plaintiffs appealed to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which itself suffered damage in Katrina and had to temporarily move its operations to Houston.

The Fifth Circuit — considered one of the nation’s most conservative — reversed the district court’s judgment, concluding that the plaintiffs have standing to assert their public and private nuisance, trespass and negligence claims. It sent the case back to the district court for further proceedings.

The Institute For Southern Studies