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Wagner Farms, Inc. v. Modesto Irrigation Dist.

The court reversed an award of costs that a lower court made to an irrigation district after denying farmers' petition for a writ of mandate to enforce the California Environmental Quality Act with respect to a proposal to construct high-voltage electricity transmission lines across the farmers' pro...

Oregon Natural Resources Council v. BLM

The court held that the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) environmental assessment (EA) for a logging project in Oregon violated the National Environmental Policy Act and that the lower court erred in dismissing the case as moot. Although the harvested trees cannot be restored, harm to old gro...

Mobaldi v. CER Corp.

The court dismissed individuals' claims for personal injuries and property damage against a company that contracted with an oil and gas corporation that engaged in radioactive tracer "fracing" near the individuals' property in the early 1990s. The individuals claimed that the fracing contaminated th...

W.R. Grace & Co. v. Weja, Inc.

The court reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing a property owner's claims against the former tenants and operators of a gas station in New Jersey and two oil companies that supplied gasoline to the site. There were issues of material fact as to whether delivery spills and overfills...

Parks Real Estate Purchasing Group v. National Union Fire Ins. Co.

The court vacated and remanded a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of an insurance company in a case involving building damage caused by particulate matter emanating from the collapse of the World Trade Center Towers. The insurer denied the claim under the insurance policy's contamina...

In re Exxon Valdez

The court cut nearly in half the $4.5 billion punitive damages award against Exxon Mobil in connection with its 1989 oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The ratio of punitive damages to actual economic harm resulting from the spill exceeded by a material factor the ratio that would be appropr...

Glass v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue

The court upheld a tax court's decision that taxpayers' conservation easements were qualified contributions under I.R.C. §170(h)(1). The Internal Revenue Service argued that the taxpayers were not entitled to deductions for the two easements because they did not qualify as "qualified conservati...

State v. Underwriters at Lloyd's London

An appellate court reversed a lower court decision holding that insurers need not indemnify the state for damage caused to third parties due to the discharge of pollutants from the Stringfellow Acid Pits waste disposal site. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the insurers based on ...

Hallco Texas, Inc. v. McMullen County

The court dismissed a landowner's takings claim against a county for denying it a variance from a local ordinance that prohibits landfills within three miles of a water-supply reservoir. The action was barred by res judicata. The facts relevant to the landowner's present takings claim—the coun...

North Kern Water Storage Dist. v. Kern Delta Water Dist.

An appellate court reversed a lower court decision concerning the forfeiture of certain previously appropriated waters of the Kern River. The parties' primary dispute concerned the theoretical entitlement of a junior user versus the volume of water actually available to that user on a given day. The...