In what appears to be a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, big oil companies – including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Shell – are facing a climate change wrongful death lawsuit from the family of a Seattle woman.
The lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court on May 28, alleges the oil companies knowingly fueled climate change and misled the public about the risks and consequences that the suit claims contributed to the record-high temperatures that blanketed western Washington in the final week of June 2021.
Julie Leon died of hyperthermia on June 28, 2021, Seattle’s hottest day on record, when temperatures soared to 108 degrees.
“On that day, Julie was overcome by heat while driving through Seattle with her windows rolled down. She managed to safely pull off the highway and onto a residential street before losing consciousness. Roughly two hours later, a good Samaritan discovered her, unresponsive and hot to the touch. First responders administered over a dozen rounds of CPR and other lifesaving measures but could not revive her,” the legal filing reads.
The lawsuit contends the extreme heat that killed Leon was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate.
“Indeed, scientists have determined that an event as severe as the Heat Dome would have been ‘virtually impossible’ without anthropogenic warming,” according to the filing.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Ray Hilbrich
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
