A Washington woman is suing several major oil companies, claiming their products contributed to the death of her mother during the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat wave.
Misti Leon has filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court in Seattle against ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and Olympic Pipeline Company. She alleges the companies played a role in driving climate change, which intensified the record-breaking heat that caused her mother, Juliana Leon, to die of hyperthermia.
On June 28, 2021, temperatures in the region reached 108 degrees — the highest ever recorded. Juliana Leon, 65, was in her car without a functioning air conditioner when she pulled over and was later found unconscious. Her core body temperature had reached 110 degrees, and she died of overheating.
The Washington State Department of Health and King County medical examiner reported that year that there were at least 25 direct heat-related deaths in King County between June 26 and July 6, 2021. The deaths were primarily attributed to hyperthermia or heatstroke, and the decedents tended to be older individuals or those who lacked air conditioning. The New York Times did an analysis and said there were 600 excess deaths in Washington and Oregon during that heat wave week, with about 450 excess deaths in Washington alone. The University of Washington pegged it at 159.
“Defendants knew that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earth’s atmosphere,” the new lawsuit claims. It also states that by 1968, oil companies “understood that the fossil fuel-dependent economy they were creating and perpetuating would intensify those atmospheric changes, resulting in more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life.” The filing, Leon v. ExxonMobil et al., argues that “the extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate.”
Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. responded in a statement to media: “Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed.”
King County Superior Court is a progressive venue in the heart of Seattle, a known bastion of both the Democratic Party and the Socialist Party and its subsets. Seattle voters in 2020 voted 75% for Joe Biden and 22% for Donald Trump. In 2024, Seattle voters awarded Kamala Harris 87% of the vote, and Donald Trump only 8.95%, indicating that the city has gone even more left.
While no other case exactly mirrors this wrongful death claim, several lawsuits have similarly sought to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate-related impacts, alleging deception or failure to mitigate emissions.
In 2024, the city and county of Honolulu sued major oil companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, and BP, seeking damages for climate change-related impacts such as sea level rise, flooding, and heatwaves. That suit alleges the companies concealed the dangers of fossil fuels and used deceptive marketing. It remains ongoing.
In 2020, the Delaware Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, and the American Petroleum Institute, accusing them of misleading consumers about climate impacts for over 50 years. The case cites violations of consumer protection laws and alleges harms such as sea level rise and extreme weather. It is still in litigation.
Also in 2020, Connecticut’s Attorney General sued ExxonMobil under the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act, alleging the company concealed the consequences of fossil fuel use, leading to climate-related damages like sea level rise and property loss. That case is ongoing.
In 2019, Massachusetts filed a similar lawsuit against ExxonMobil, accusing the company of misleading investors and consumers about the risks of fossil fuel-driven climate change. That case also remains unresolved.
Many of these lawsuits have been brought by Democratic-led states or environmental litigation firms. The Seattle case is reportedly the first to assert wrongful death liability against oil companies based on a single individual’s death from extreme heat.
Earlier this year, the State of Washington sued President Donald Trump over his declaration of a national energy emergency. Get caught up on lawsuit that at the following link.
She forgot to sue all the coal companies and the undersea volcano off their coast.
“Juliana Leon, 65, was in her car without a functioning air conditioner…”
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Typical child…. errrr…. I mean leftist. It is always someone else’s fault.
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Let’s see… No functioning air conditioner in the vehicle. Not the oil company’s fault, the fault of the car owner. She pulled over, instead of… Oh, i do not know, going into a shop that had AC? Getting into the shade and drinking some water?
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How, exactly is this the fault of the oil companies?
Ohhh… now, here is a thought experiment. What if we never developed petroleum as an energy source?
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What would the primary energy source be?
What would the carbon emissions of that energy source look like?
Would the environmental impacts be worse? Or less significant?
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In fact, instead of suing the petroleum companies for climate change, they should be praising them. Without petroleum as an energy source, there would be much worse pollution, and less trees, and more people dying.
AMEN
Alex Epstein says oil and gas save lives, so he can help those who don’t like oil and gas; Alex can educate the Green Group so they understand how great oil and gas is for America. Alex Epstein is speaking at the Trump “Energy Dominance “DAY ZERO” conference in Anchorage, June 2-5, 2025
Two words. Prove it! These people are off their damn rockers!
“…….Two words. Prove it!………”
This is a civil case. Three words apply: Preponderance of evidence. This is the kind of legal action that continues to destroy our civilization, and Ms. Leon might get well paid for doing it. As Alaskans, we might start considering building/buying tall sailing ships in order to ship in the soon to be dwindling imports we will continue to need………..like food, which the governor was unable to prioritize food security due to all the struggle over PFD checks……………
We need natural green based energy! Do these fool not know that oil based fuels are organic natural green energy. These fools missed out on an education it seems as you CO2 is actually in the historical low percentage. It goes up and down in the amount percentage. Do the fear monsters understand that humans need carbon dioxide to live….not just for food and energy but to breath. The lack of a percentage of carbon dioxide in your body with triggers your body to inhale. If you want to pick something you use your brain to move your muscles. Breathing is not a brain thing it is a chemical reaction when you co2 is low you grasp!
Co2 is in low average history due to natural co2 ability to be stored in algae, tree, dead or alive, coal ect burning wood and oil even farting and exhaling returns co2 for plant life (our food).
Let’s bring education into our schools again! I thing since the last 35 years we have watered down organic science in the classrooms!
🤔🧐🫨
Yes, let’s bring education back; but let’s start with grammar.
The fatigue is real. Enoch Powell was right. It’s almost too late to stop global Zimbabwe.
Yes, let’s sue oil companies because our relatives are incapable of taking perdonal responsibility.
Leon the younger should have first instructed Leon the elder to stop driving at all.
Nuisance lawsuits should include a serving of pain for the plaintiff.
Why didn’t the loving daughter get the A/C fixed for her dear mother? Make sure she had water in her car if she decided to go somewhere?
I guess it never occurred to this person to roll down the windows. Doesn’t matter though, Anchorage will join the lawsuit.
“Her core body temperature had reached 110 degrees…”
Misti had the hottest mom in WA.
It’s not the oil companies it’s the geoengineering companies. Stratospheric aerosol injection: Injecting particles like sulfate aerosols (similar to those from volcanic eruptions) or other materials like alumina and calcite into the upper atmosphere to scatter sunlight. This process traps heat in the troposphere, making things warmer.
Misty has lots more than fog in her brain. She probably owns two gas cars, burns oil to heat her home, flys on jets regularly, and uses gas engines to mow her lawn. Typical flutter-brained liberal wack job.
Who’s financing this lawsuit? Suing major oil companies requires deep pockets.
Tom, this silliness is an out growth of actions taken by Ralph Nader decades ago.
Let me explain… Nader if you recall wrote books and successfully sued auto makers, for ” unsafe cars”.Naders activities inspired many young people to pursue a career in law.
Universities recognized the need for Law Schools and planned accordingly. In the aftermath we now have millions of Lawyers who need to pay their rent and be relevant members of society. This case and so many like it are Lawyers providing work for Lawyers.
The vortex of insanity continues.
Pick me! pick me! pick me for the jury in this diabolical effort.
Frivolous nonsense… Maybe we should back the oil companies with solid science before the SCOTUS and put a stop to this lawfare. See cfact.org for starters.
Man, I remember that HOT summer.
A friend came from outside to visit & he couldn’t understand why we were so fuzzy brained.
I told him it was the unbearable heat, but being outsiders, it seemed like normal weather to them.
There was an article about construction/real estate in Seattle at the time.
Outsiders moving to Seattle wondered why very expensive homes & apts had no central air conditioning, something not traditionally installed in Seattle.
Times are changing.
Misti Leon has time and money to file a lawsuit against a lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and Olympic Pipeline Company but not to fix the air conditioner in her mother’s car, the car in which her mother died because the air conditioning didn’t work and it got too hot?
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How’s that different from leaving children to die in a hot cat while parents go off and do their thing?
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Instead of suing companies playeing a role in driving climate change, could it be more about Misti playing a role in Mom’s death by not having the a/c fixed, but cashing in on a great chance to make serious bucks from Mom’s death, maybe enough to by a brand new air conditioner?
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Don’t fix the a/c, let Mom die from heatstroke, sue oil companies because it got too hot, how’s that not elder abuse or manslaughter?
Can someone just turn off the Sun so Hell can freeze over already? The sooner we reset this simulation the better!
Did the lady not know to get into some shade or drink some electrolytes? What happened to her mechanism of self preservation? Was she taking a cocktail of anti-depressants that prevented her from making better choices? Where was her husband? Radical feminist who needs no man? What is the real story here?
Just another false flag to handicap America’s path towards energetic freedom in the name of “Fighting Climate Change”. How is it that our world has become so overrun by devils?
That’s rich! Suing oil companies when the victim was driving a car using fuel produced by an oil company!
This law suit is far fetched and about weirdest one I see in a long time. But I got no problem with people suing the Oil Companies over climate change. It’s not a new topic they had years to start changing but did not. It’s no different from tobacco companies getting sued or suing a restaurant over E. coli. There doing something that is causing harm and owell everyone can pay for it. Our tax dollars pay for cleaning up the oil spills shipwrecks poisoning the drinking water by drilling and fracking and getting not just rich they are getting filthy rich. They going have to pay for the cost of doing business and ignoring there responsibilities.