The court holds on motions for summary judgment that a manufacturer and a newspaper company are liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for allowing a landowner to dispose of their waste on his property without a permit. The court first holds t...
The court reverses a district court order awarding landowners $1,083,585 following a jury verdict insofar as that amount was based on the landowners' Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims against a copier refurbisher, but upholds the award insofar as i...
The court reverses and remands a district court decision that landowners who sued oil companies in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) suit did not incur response costs in acting to contain a proven release of hazardous substances. The court fist holds th...
The court upholds a district court decision finding the neighbor of a food manufacturing facility 100% liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act for contaminating the facility's property. The court first holds that no genuine issue existed as to whether t...
The court affirms a district court order that dismissed a current property owner's contracts, implied covenant of good faith, and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) claims against the previous owner. Before selling the property to the current owner in 1985...
The court reverses a district court decision granting summary judgment in favor of two corporations in a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) action brought by a paper manufacturers' association seeking contribution for costs incurred in the investigation an...
In a recent essay, David Coursen asks an important and unexamined question: Are environmental justice policies, which seek to avoid disproportionate environmental burdens on minority and poor communities, on a "collision course" with the Equal Protection Clause? In concluding that a potential collision is more illusory than real, Coursen offers a number of reasons why governmental actions to promote environmental justice have not been challenged in court and, even if they were to be, would not be subjected to strict judicial scrutiny.
The court holds that environmental groups did not show that New York City's plan to sell or bulldoze lots containing community gardens would have an impermissible adverse impact on minority communities. The groups opposed the city's plan claiming that it would violate U.S. Environmental Protection A...
The court holds that because Title VI proscribes only intentional discrimination, residents of a predominantly minority community do not have a right to enforce through 42 U.S.C. §1983 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Title VI §602 disparate impact discrimination regulations agai...
The court upholds a lower court's summary judgment and bench trial rulings in favor of a city that was sued by homeowners for failing to police the operation of an illegal dump near their homes. The homeowners argued that the city violated the Fair Housing Act (FHA) §3604(a) because the dump makes ...