Kansas v. Nebraska
The U.S. Supreme Court adopted a Special Master's determination that Nebraska "knowingly failed" to comply with its obligations under a 2002 settlement agreement that resolved an underlying water allocation dispute between Nebraska and Kansas. The settlement established mechanisms to accurately meas...
Trumpeter Swan Society v. Environmental Protection Agency
The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's denial of a petition filed by 101 environmental groups asking the Agency to regulate spent lead bullets and shot under TSCA. EPA rejected the petition as “non-cognizable” under TSCA §21 on the grounds that it largely duplicated an earlier petition that two of the 1...
Across Big Sky Flow Testing, LLC v. Workforce Safety & Insurance
The North Dakota Supreme Court upheld an administrative law judge's (ALJ's) award of benefits in the death of an oil-tank worker. According to the medical examiner's report, the worker died from hydrocarbon poisoning due to the inhalation of petroleum vapors from oil storage tanks. His employer argu...
Myers v. United States
A district court, in a 120-page decision, dismissed claims that the U.S. Navy negligently exposed a child to thallium dust during its cleanup of a contaminated landfill site. The child's family, which lived next to the site, alleged that wind-blown dust migrated to their yard and home and caused her...
Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon"
A district court denied an oil company's motion to amend the findings, alter the judgment, or order a new trial in the Deepwater Horizon case in which the court found the company grossly negligent in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The company argued that it repeatedly objected to expert witness ...