Judge Dismisses San Juan Climate RICO. Meanwhile, 37 Municipalities File Appeal to their Case's Dismissal
A federal judge dismissed a climate deception lawsuit brought by the Municipality of San Juan against several fossil fuel companies.
Hi, dear reader. Here's a quick breakdown of the scoops in this article:
- A federal judge dismissed San Juan's climate RICO lawsuit against Big Oil.
- 37 Puerto Rican municipalities filed an appeal after climate RICO lawsuit was dismissed in September.
A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Municipality of San Juan against the fossil fuel industry.
The lawsuit accused Exxon, Chevron, Shell, and other fossil fuel companies of conspiring to deceive the public about their product's role in fueling climate change, which led to devastating impacts of the 2017 hurricane season, according to the federal complaint filed in December 2023. It alleged the companies had violated fraud, racketeering, nuisance, and antitrust laws, as well as threats to the human and constitutional rights of Puerto Ricans.
"The scale of devastation was not an act of nature alone. For decades, defendants, the world's largest fossil fuel companies, possessed internal studies and knowledge that their products were driving global warming, and heightening the intensity of tropical hurricanes. Rather than warn, and take the correct measures to avoid this situation, they conspired and funded an orchestrated public relations campaign to deny and discredit climate science, forestalling mitigation," reads a motion filed by David Efron, San Juan's lawyer.
Hurricanes Irma and María led to thousands of deaths in Puerto Rico and over $90 billion in damages. The archipelago has still not recovered.
In her opinion and order justifying the dismissal, the judge overseeing the San Juan lawsuit called it a "copycat" of a lawsuit filed by 37 Puerto Rican municipalities in 2022, which was dismissed in September. The judge overseeing the municipalities' case wrote that their claims were "barred by the applicable statute of limitations." However, the 37 municipalities filed an appeal to the dismissal yesterday.
The 37 municipalities's lawsuit was the first-ever class-action lawsuit that alleged Big Oil of violating Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act.
The same day the 37 municipalities' lawsuit was dismissed, the Judge overseeing San Juan's case, Aida Delgado Colón, ordered San Juan to explain why its lawsuits should not be dismissed as well.
Efron wrote the municipalities' case was dismissed because of an "overly strict interpretation of the statute of limitation," and that San Juan's claims should not be barred because the statute of limitations can be extended if a defendant acted fraudulently. However, he did not provide proof for the alleged fraudulent conduct. He also noted that, in contrast to the municipalities, they did not sue the American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade organization for oil and gas companies.
San Juan "suffered greater damage and has sustained the most deaths of citizens than any other municipality," Efron wrote.
"In our opinion, the government of Puerto Rico succumbed to anti-climate change political pressure, which should never be a basis to decide the result of a case, dropping its suit without any consideration of the interest or well-being of its citizens," wrote Efron in the motion about the 37 municipalities' lawsuit being dismissed.
However, Judge Delgado Colón, did not agree with Efron's arguments and issued a 13-page opinion and order dismissing the San Juan lawsuit. Although the filing and the accompanying judgement have a file date of Sept. 30, 2025, they were entered on Oct. 8, 2025, according to PACER.
Efron had previously filed a motion to consolidate San Juan's lawsuit with the municipalities' lawsuit, which was made moot by the latter's dismissal.
As Heavy Weather has previously reported, Efron was sanctioned for repeated late fillings. He has also been accused of plagiarising the municipalities' lawsuit by the judge and the defendants in that case. At time of reporting, it is unclear if the "separate procedure" opened for those allegations has been closed.
All claims against Exxon, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Motiva, Occidental, BP, and Shell were dismissed with prejudice. Meanwhile, all claims against BHP and Rio Tinto were dismissed without prejudice.
I broke the story about the 37 municipalities case being dismissed here:
Carlos Berríos Polanco
The government of Puerto Rico voluntarily dismissed a similar climate lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry earlier this year. The dismissal came after an oilfield services executives published an op-ed in Forbes asking Gov. Jennifer González Colón to dismiss the lawsuit. The American Energy Institute, a pro-fossil fuel advocacy group, sent a letter to González Colón around the same time asking her to drop the lawsuit and to file amicus briefs in the municipalities and San Juan litigation in favor of dismissal with prejudice.
A government spokesperson later said the lawsuit was dropped to align with Trump's policies “to support the burning of fossil fuels [and] the protection of oil companies," according to the Center for Climate Integrity.
A records request to the Puerto Rico Department of Justice for records relating to the dismissal was denied. The agency said the information was confidential under attorney-client privilege.
Climate lawsuits, including the one presented by Puerto Rico, have been under attack by the Trump administration since the beginning of the year.
The judgement in the San Juan lawsuit can be found here.
The opinion and order in the San Juan lawsuit can be found below:
