A district court held that the corporate successor to various legal entities at a former industrial site is not liable for various environmental cleanup expenses at the site. The city that filed suit against the successor failed to present sufficient evidence to establish that the successor is liabl...

The Supreme Court of California affirmed in part and reversed in part an appellate court decision reversing a trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of excess insurance companies in the state's action to obtain coverage for property damage liability imposed in a federal lawsuit concerning ...

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) violated the Washington state Hazardous Waste Management Act (HWMA) in its management of mixed radioactive and hazardous waste, commonly known as TRUM, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. DOE argued that it no longer has an obligation u...

A California appellate court affirmed a trial court's ruling in favor of tuna companies in a state lawsuit seeking to require the companies to warn pregnant women and women of childbearing age that they are exposed to methylmercury when they consume canned tuna. Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Wat...

The Federal Circuit reversed a lower court decision that U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations restricting a farm's egg sales during a two-year period due to the presence of salmonella bacteria constituted a taking for which just compensation is due. The farm's monetary loss due to the regulati...

The Eighth Circuit upheld as moot a lower court decision denying a hunting club's motion to preliminarily enjoin a power company from constructing a 600-megawatt pulverized coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County, Arkansas, without first obtaining a prevention of significant deterioration permit ...

The D.C. Circuit held that a state agency lacked standing to challenge two Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) orders conditionally approving a company's application to site, construct, and operate a liquid natural gas terminal near the mouth of the Delaware River. FERC conditionally approve...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) decision to grant a state agency a new 50-year license to operate a hydroelectric facility near Niagara Falls. Several communities in western New York argued that FERC's licensing decision was arbitrary and capricious and un...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision that a city violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in approving a residential and commercial development project. The lower court properly ruled that the city violated the Planning and Zoning Law because the city's genera...

A district court held that the due care and discretionary function exceptions to the Federal Tort Claims Act do not shield the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from homeowners' lawsuit against it for damages stemming from flooding following Hurricane Katrina. Plaintiffs argued that the Corps failed to p...