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The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it will hear a lawsuit brought by Louisiana localities claiming that Chevron (NYSE:CVX), Exxon Mobil (NYSE:XOM) and other oil and gas companies damaged the state’s coast over several decades, Reuters reported.
The justices agreed to take up an appeal by the companies of a lower court ruling rejecting their claims that the lawsuits belong in federal court because the parishes of Plaquemines and Cameron were suing over oil production activities undertaken to fulfill U.S. government refinery contracts during World War II.
Starting in 2013, six Louisiana parishes along the coast filed 42 lawsuits accusing the companies of violating Louisiana’s State and Local Coastal Resources Management Act of 1978, a state permitting law; the first of the cases to go to trial ruled in April that Chevron (NYSE:CVX) must pay $744.6M to Plaquemines Parish $744.6M.
The companies appealed the ruling and a similar case brought by Cameron Parish to the high court, which said it would hear the case in the next term in October.
The companies have long argued that the cases are not appropriate for state court, a venue considered more favorable to plaintiffs.