The court affirms a district court certification of a class of homeowners to determine a factory's liability, but not damages, for allegedly contaminating the homeowners' soil and groundwater. Class action treatment is appropriate and permitted by Fed. R. Civ. P. 23 when there are genuinely common i...
The court reverses a district court decision vacating a $25,000 fine against two individuals that violated the Clean Water Act (CWA) by trenching, grading, and filling wetlands without a permit. After having been found guilty of violating the CWA and being ordered by a district court to allow access...
The court affirms a lower court decision holding a landowners' takings claim against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) ripe, but reverses the lower court's decision that the taking was permanent. The Corps' denial of the landowners' fill permit application was a final decision rendering t...
The court holds that application of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to a commercial housing development that threatened the continued existence of the arroyo southwestern toad, an endangered species, was a constitutional exercise of federal authority under the U.S. Commerce Clause. The court previo...
The court holds that under Texas law, property owners can recover for trespass based on contamination by emission of airborne particulates. The only showing necessary is entry over land by some "thing." In addition, evidence in this case showed actual contamination of the property by the emissions. ...
The court holds that the doctrine of res judicata bars claims stemming from a commercial landfill operator's efforts to win approval for a proposed landfill expansion. After a state court found that county commissioners violated the operator's substantive due process and equal protection rights but ...
The court upholds a district court's approval of a consent decree involving water contamination in the Virgin Islands. The district court's approval of the decree was fair, reasonable, and in the public interest, and it did not err by approving the consent decree without holding a full evidentiary h...
The court holds that a defense contractor that operated the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in Colorado could recover under its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) legal fees and other costs it incurred in a successful defense against environmental criminal charges brought against it...
The court affirms a lower court decision that an insurer had no duty to defend a scrap metal processing and recycling company in an administrative action brought against it by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources. The company failed to meet its burden of proving the applicability o...
The court holds that a district court improperly admitted expert scientific testimony in an action alleging injuries from exposure to hazardous substances through the operation of a uranium mill. The lower court failed to perform its gatekeeper function with respect to plaintiffs' experts and thereb...