She’s on a Mission From God: Suing Big Oil for Climate Damages
A lawyer started small with a creative tactic. It grew into an effort that could force fossil fuel companies to pay hundreds of billions in damages.
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Missy Sims carefully picked her way through a field of ruined tombs in central Puerto Rico, in a cemetery where walls of water from Hurricane Maria had smashed open some coffins and sent others careering into a nearby stream.
Six years later, the burial place in Lares, where more than 1,700 graves were damaged, is still shattered.
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“This is apocalyptic, end of the world, end of times stuff,” said Ms. Sims, an attorney who is representing 16 Puerto Rican municipalities that are seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for the damage caused by a series of storms, including Maria.
Ms. Sims wiped away a tear as she surveyed the broken graves and absorbed the pain of the grieving families. But she also vowed to hold those responsible to account.
Ms. Sims, 54, may be the most surprising legal figure to emerge as the world grapples with the devastating impacts of a warming planet. An Armani-and-Rolex wearing observant Catholic from a small Midwest town who talks to God as she mulls her complex legal cases, Ms. Sims is also a constant TikTok poster whose dog has more followers than some celebrities.
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