A California appellate court upheld two irrigation districts' decisions to assign water rights to a city. The districts did not improperly segment environmental review of the two assignment approvals. The assignments involved separate water rights, they transfer different amounts of water, and they ...

The Fifth Circuit vacated the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) decision that two natural gas pipelines perform a "transportation" function rather than a "gathering" function, thereby subjecting them to FERC jurisdiction's under the Natural Gas Act. Natural gas flows from gathering pip...

The Second Circuit held that a Vermont environmental land use statute cannot impose preconstruction permit requirements on proposed railroad transloading facilities. The statute's preconstruction permit requirements are preempted by the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act. The permit requ...

The Federal Circuit upheld the dismissal of landowners' inverse condemnation suit against the federal government alleging that their property was contaminated by trichloroethylene (TCE) as the result of government actions at a U.S. Air Force base. The landowners failed to point to some evidence pres...

A California appellate court reversed the approval of a land exchange agreement that conveyed out of the public trust 3 acres of former tidelands that have been filled in exchange for 10 acres along the Los Angeles River. California Public Resource Code §6307 requires that the underlying purpos...

A California appellate court upheld a city's adoption of a redevelopment plan for San Jose, California. The city's finding of blight in the areas affected by the plan was supported by substantial evidence., full_html...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of a local water agency in its action to recover water charges from a property owner because triable issues of fact exist concerning the amount owed. The lower court properly dismissed the property owner's defen...

The Third Circuit reversed a district court judgment awarding compensation to property owners pursuant to the government’s taking of 6.45 acres of land in the Gettysburg National Military Park. The court impermissibly failed to apply the "unit rule" of valuation and, therefore, improperly deter...

The First Circuit held that neither the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) nor the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) waive U.S. sovereign immunity in a property owner's suit to recover monetary damages for its cleanup of past oil contamination on a former U.S. Navy base. RCRA contains no exp...

The Tenth Circuit dismissed a Native American tribe's appeal of a General Services Administration determination that property underlying a former military installation no longer lies within the tribe's present-day reservation boundaries and that the tribe is therefore not entitled to the property. T...