The court dismisses on ripeness grounds a conservation group's claim that the U.S. Forest Service violated the Endangered Species Act (ESA) by failing to carry out certain conservation programs in its management of the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming. Specifically, the group argued that by a...

The court holds that a county zoning board's denial of an existing nonconforming use certificate to a strip miner that also wanted to operate a landfill on its property did not violate the strip mining company's due process or equal protection rights or constitute a taking without just compensation....

The court reverses and remands a district court decision and holds that counties' flow-control ordinances, which require that all waste generated within the counties be delivered to one of five publicly owned facilities, are not unconstitutional under the U.S. Commerce Clause. In-state waste haulers...

The court holds that a trial court improperly granted an individual stigma damages in his breach of contract case against a termite company. The individual and the company entered a contract whereby the company promised to repair termite damage and to retreat the house to prevent or control a re-inf...

The court holds that a trial court erred in not evaluating evidence of environmental contamination and remediation costs related to a company's property that a regional economic alliance, acting for a town, took by eminent domain. The court first holds that excluding contamination evidence, as a mat...

The court affirms in part and reverses in part a trial court decision that the insurance policies of the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) did not provide coverage for an administrative proceeding brought against it by the state environmental agency for contamination at a former prison site, b...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing environmental groups' claims challenging a proposed settlement agreement between Utah and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concerning the agency's inventory, classification, and management of certain types of BLM and state trust lands. ...

A district court denied a chemical company's motion to dismiss property owners' common-law property claims for damages arising out of alleged continuing airborne vinyl chloride contamination and past groundwater contamination. The owners argued that this "physical invasion" of their property by a ca...

The Eleventh Circuit held an insurance company need not provide legal defense to its insured, an engineering firm, in an underlying lawsuit alleging that it negligently failed to discover construction debris and fuel tanks during an environmental site assessment. The firm argued that the pollution e...

A Texas appellate court vacated a lower court order denying oil refineries' motions to dismiss individuals' personal injury claims stemming from their exposure to allegedly dangerous emissions from the refineries' facilities. Although the individuals recharacterized their allegations as property dam...