Lawsuit blames oil companies for woman’s Seattle heat-dome death

The daughter of a woman killed by the Northwest’s extreme heat wave of 2021 is suing the oil industry over her mother’s death.

Juliana Leon was driving home to Ferndale, Washington, after a Seattle medical check-up on the hottest day in Northwest history: June 28, 2021.

According to the lawsuit filed Thursday in King County Superior Court, Leon, age 65 at the time, was driving with her windows down since her air-conditioner wasn’t working. As she left Seattle around noon, the temperature hit 102 degrees.

She managed to pull off Interstate 5, park on a residential street in Northeast Seattle's Maple Leaf neighborhood, and turn off her engine. But she was soon overcome by heat. She did not call for help or answer half a dozen incoming phone calls.

RELATED: 2021 Northwest heat dome was deadlier than previously believed, according to new report

Two hours after she parked, a passerby found her slumped over and unconscious. The bystander and emergency medical technicians attempted CPR but were unable to save her.

Her body temperature hit 110 as the air outside hit 105.

The record-shattering heat wave killed an estimated 1,200 people in British Columbia, Oregon, and Washington, according to analyses of excess death statistics by the British Columbia Coroners Service, KUOW, and the New York Times.

A peer-reviewed study by World Weather Attribution concluded heat that extreme was “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change.

Carbon dioxide and methane emissions from fossil-fuel use are the primary drivers of planetary overheating.

Leon’s daughter, Misti Leon, is suing seven oil companies: BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Olympic Pipeline, Phillips 66, and Shell.

Her wrongful-death suit argues the companies knew for decades that their products endangered the climate, but they hid that truth from the public.

RELATED: Climate change supercharged the Northwest heat dome

“Instead of warning the public and consumers about the dangers of their products, Defendants launched a campaign of deception to downplay and discredit the risks of climate change and ensure growing demand for their fossil fuel products,” the lawsuit alleges.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages and a public education campaign to undo what it calls “decades of misinformation.”

Spokespeople for the Western States Petroleum Association and the American Petroleum Institute, both accused in the lawsuit of deceiving the public about the severe consequences of fossil-fuel combustion, did not respond to KUOW's interview requests.

Dozens of state, local, and tribal governments have sued fossil-fuel companies, seeking billions of dollars in damages from worsening storms, floods, heat waves, and rising seas.

In the Northwest, the Makah and Shoalwater Bay tribes and Multnomah County, Oregon’s most populous county, have sued fossil-fuel companies for their role in changing the climate.

“Suits like these continue to waste time,” ExxonMobil wrote to OPB about Multnomah County’s 2023 lawsuit seeking $52 billion in damages for the 2021 heat dome. “This action has no impact on our intention to invest billions of dollars to leading the way in a thoughtful energy transition that takes the world to net zero carbon emissions.”

Most of the climate-harming pollution from fossil fuels isn’t emitted by energy companies themselves, but by the people and businesses that buy and burn those fuels or the electricity made with them. How to assign responsibility for emissions among consumers, producers, regulators, and political actors is hotly debated.