The court holds that an insurance company need not indemnify a county for expenses it incurred in responding to an administrative agency order requiring it to remediate environmental contamination at a county landfill. The nonstandard, excess third-party liability policy at issue obligates the insur...

A court dismisses a building owner's request for a declaratory judgment entitling it to indemnification for any damages or penalties it may be obligated to pay arising from asbestos violations that occurred during asbestos abatement work at its property. The owner claimed that the abatement company'...

A court holds that portions of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a water quality improvement program in the San Francisco Bay comply with the California Environmental Quality Act. The court rejected the majority of challenges that concerned the adequacy of the EIR's analysis of impacts on the...

A court orders a lower court to grant a county's motion to dismiss on ripeness grounds an inverse condemnation action brought by a land developer. The developer argued that a land use regulation, as applied to its property, constituted a taking under the federal and California Constitutions. The cou...

A court held that a city's approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed industrial/business park violated the California Environmental Quality Act. Although no other defects were found, the EIR did not sufficiently discuss the adequacy of water supplies for the project. Certain wa...

A court reverses the state transportation agency's approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) for a proposed freeway interchange project in connection with a proposed hotel and casino complex on Native American lands and remanded the EIR for additional analysis. By analyzing the project's traf...

A court dismisses a company's claims against the prior owners of its property for failing to remove drums, titanium grindings, and other metals from the site pursuant to a purchase agreement. The company also argued that the prior owners violated a state court order, issued in conjunction with a set...

The court dismisses a petition challenging a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule allowing the director of an approved state landfill to grant variances from EPA criteria for sanitary landfills. The environmental group challenging the rule lacks associational standing because none of its ...

A court holds that California Penal Code 653o, which bans the import of products made from certain animals, including kangaroos, into California is preempted by federal law and by general federal objectives of kangaroo conservation. The statute as applied in this case conflicts with federal law and ...

A court upholds, with modification, a trial court decision in favor of an insurance company in a case involving an aerospace manufacturer's claim for coverage under numerous insurance policies for pollution-related liability totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. It was error for the trial court ...