Jeanette M. Bazis, Greene Espel PLLP

The heat is on at the Eighth Circuit but now at a simmer not a boil. The circuit will hear a tidal wave of cases from across the country on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s release of its rules requiring emissions reporting.

The Eighth Circuit won the lottery conducted to consolidate the multi-district litigation after business interests, Republican state attorneys general, and environmentalists flocking to upend the SEC’s recently approved emissions reporting rules have filed at least nine lawsuits across six federal courts. The case is Iowa v. SEC. Amici curiae have joined in favor of the SEC rules.

Jeannette Bazis of Greene Espel PLLP and her colleague John Baker filed an amicus brief for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, We Mean Business Coalition, and World Business Council for Sustainable Development North America in favor of the SEC rule.  

Their clients’ position is “Based on their interactions and discussions with these SEC registrants, amici believe that the rule will greatly improve the quality of climate-risk disclosures made in the public securities markets. Further, any measurement of the additional costs from the rule’s disclosures on SEC registrants must account for the costs already imposed by the existing U.S. state and foreign laws that apply to many SEC registrants. Ultimately, the rule safeguards the continued vitality and efficiency of U.S. capital markets, benefitting all SEC registrants and their investors and stakeholders.”

In other litigation, the Hennepin County District Court has found itself the venue for litigation over property claims deriving from the war in Ukraine.

One such claim involves plaintiff Castlelake, a global private investment firm in Hennepin County where the lawsuit is heard by Judge Susan Robiner. The firm says it has lost 18 commercial aircraft leased to airlines operating in Russia through seizure by the Putin government. The lessees have refused to return the planes, saying they are prohibited by the Russian government from doing so. 

Bazis is one of the lawyers for defendants, a group of insurers. They provide “all risk” policies which cover loss or damage not caused by war. They also provide “war risk” policies. Castlelake seeks $367 million from the defendants. It is one of 11 other suits in the U.S., along with six in Ireland and five in the United Kingdom.

On September 30,  Robiner granted partial summary judgment to three of the defendant insurance companies and otherwise denied summary judgment to defendants, finding there was no total loss.