Legal News

9th Circuit and AG rescue the car, not the frog

By Richard Binder

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has granted California Attorney General Jerry Brown's motion to voluntarily dismiss the state's global warming lawsuit against six of the nation's largest automobile manufacturers.

The June 24 order put an end to the lawsuit, which was the first of its kind when filed in 2006 against Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. The suit claimed that the companies created a public nuisance under federal common law by contributing to global warming through the emissions from their automobiles.

In September 2007, a federal judge in San Francisco dismissed the case, ruling that the issue belonged before legislators in Washington and not the courts. Brown appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit, but conceded on June 19 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) recent recognition that greenhouse gases should be regulated merited dismissal.

Full story at NLJ.com.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on June 25, 2009 (boomark / email).