An appellate court reversed a lower court decision holding that insurers need not indemnify the state for damage caused to third parties due to the discharge of pollutants from the Stringfellow Acid Pits waste disposal site. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the insurers based on ...

The court dismissed a landowner's takings claim against a county for denying it a variance from a local ordinance that prohibits landfills within three miles of a water-supply reservoir. The action was barred by res judicata. The facts relevant to the landowner's present takings claim—the coun...

An appellate court reversed a lower court decision concerning the forfeiture of certain previously appropriated waters of the Kern River. The parties' primary dispute concerned the theoretical entitlement of a junior user versus the volume of water actually available to that user on a given day. The...

A district court denied a motion to preliminarily enjoin a city from filling 3.5 acres of wetlands to construct a road. Environmental groups and homeowners argued that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the Clean Water Act (CWA), National Environmental Policy Act, and the National Historic Pr...

The court upheld a lower court decision dismissing residents' takings claim against a city for the dewatering of their water wells in the 1990s. Their takings claim based on past violations was barred by the statute of limitations because it was delinquently filed in federal court. Meanwhile, their ...

The court modified a lower court order compelling arbitration, enjoining an action in Nigeria, and staying a company's admiralty and maritime law claims against various shipping entities for damages arising from a contaminated shipment of oil that was transported from New Jersey to Nigeria. Based on...

The court held that it lacked appellate jurisdiction over a lower court's partial grant of summary judgment in favor of the parent company of a chemical plant in Bhopal, India, that allegedly caused soil and groundwater contamination. Property owners and residents near the plant sought monetary and ...

A California appellate court reversed state agency legislation implementing emergency regulations and imposing new annual fees on holders of water right permits and licenses under California Water Code §1525. As applied through the emergency regulations, the annual fees are unlawful taxes in vi...

A district court stayed an automobile industry lawsuit over California's greenhouse gas rules for cars pending the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Massachusetts v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 415 F.3d 50, 35 ELR 20148 (D.C. Cir. 2005), cert. granted, 126 S. Ct. 2960 (...

The court dismissed environmental organizations' claims that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) failed to conduct the environmental and historical assessments required by the National Environmental Polic...