The court holds that a suit alleging that the Corps of Engineers negligently supervised the construction of two jetties in a river channel causing severe flooding of plaintiffs' property is not barred by the Federal Tort Claims Act's (FTCA's) discretionary function exception. The Corps issued a perm...

The court approves a partial consent decree under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Recovery Act (CERCLA), requiring a defendant at the Verona Well Field hazardous waste site in Battle Creek, Michigan, to reimburse the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the state of ...

The court holds that nonsettling hazardous waste generators are jointly and severally liable under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107 for past cleanup costs not covered by settlement agreements and for future costs. Rhode Island had filed a CERCLA co...

The court holds that summary judgment is inappropriate in a settlement agreement for Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) response costs because the government raises genuine issues of material fact as to a 49 percent shareholder's involvement in company man...

The court holds that an insurance policy's pollution exclusion clause bars coverage of an insured company charged with violating state hazardous waste and water pollution laws. The insurance policy did not use the "sudden and accidental" standard found in many pollution exclusion clauses, but instea...

The court holds that a proposed de minimis consent decree under §122 (g) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) concerning claims by the United States and New Jersey for response costs at the Lipari landfill is fair and reasonable. The company that con...

The court holds that a consent decree in an action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) filed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against 12 potentially responsible parties does not violate state "applicable or relevant and appropriate req...

The court imposes a $3.205 million civil penalty in a Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) citizen suit against a company for illegal and excessive discharges from its wastewater treatment plant. The court had previously determined that between 1977 and 1988, the bulk chemical storage and tra...

The court reaffirms its earlier ruling that repetitive punitive damages awards for the same wrongful conduct in asbestos cases violate a defendant's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause. The court first holds that the local rule for reconsideration, rather than the federal rule...

The court approves two partial consent decrees in an action brought by the United States, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) to recover response costs incurred at four sites. The Environmental Protection Agency (E...