An Ohio appellate court upheld the dismissal of a property owner's state contribution claim against a mega-store for costs incurred cleaning up mercury and lead contamination at a recycling facility. The owner failed to prepare and submit a "no further action letter" necessary to pursue contribution...

A district court held that a neighborhood association and environmental groups who succeeded on just one of their claims against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are entitled to attorneys fees and costs related to the entire litigation. Plaintiffs sought to enjoin the Corps from dredging, stirring u...

The Alaska Supreme Court held that gasoline leaked from the broken fill pipe of an underground storage tank (UST) is a "pollutant" under the absolute pollution exclusion contained in the tank owner's commercial liability insurance policy. The policy's pollution exclusion unambiguously excluded prope...

An Illinois appellate court reinstated a $120 million jury verdict awarded in favor of residents who filed a nuisance class action suit against the owner of a nearby oil refinery. After the entry of the multimillion dollar jury award in favor of the residents, the trial court decertified the class, ...

A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of a landowner's claims that an airport land use compatibility plan for the Travis Air Force Base is not consistent with an Air Force installation compatible use zone study prepared for the site. A landowner argued that the safety and noise standards...

The Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court order giving an aluminum company more time to build a power plant than originally agreed to in a consent decree that resolved alleged Clean Air Act violations at the company's manufacturing plant. After the company failed to meet the decree's deadline for comme...

The Ninth Circuit held that Native American tribes lacked standing to enforce a consent decree entered into by a mining company and the federal government for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act violations at the company's phosphorous plant located on land within a tribal reservation. In addition...

The Rhode Island Supreme Court reversed a jury verdict finding three lead paint producers liable for creating a public nuisance. The state has not and cannot allege any set of facts to support its public nuisance claim that would establish that defendants interfered with a public right or that defen...

A district court held that an oil company's claims against its insurer for the costs of cleaning up and redeveloping a parcel of land on the shore of the Sakonnet River in Rhode Island under a 1992 consent agreement are not time barred. Depending on whether Massachusetts or Rhode Island law applies,...

A New York court held that the state environmental agency arbitrarily and capriciously denied a developer's application to include in the state brownfield cleanup program certain parcels of contaminated land that it plans to convert into a mega-mall and resort center. Admission into the program give...