The court holds that a bankruptcy court correctly allowed a Chapter 7 trustee to abandon real property of the bankruptcy estate over a state environmental agency's objection. The agency argued that although a trustee may abandon property of an estate that is burdensome or of inconsequential value an...
The court affirms a bankruptcy court decision holding that the toxic tort claims brought by neighborhood plaintiffs against a bankrupt manufacturing facility had accrued prior to the bankruptcy bar and that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate excusable neglect, but the court reverses the decision w...
The court reverses a district court and holds that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Marine Fisheries Service, and other federal defendants violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by preparing an untimely and inadequate environmental assessment (E...
The court upholds a district court decision dismissing landowners' takings claims against the Lake Tahoe Basin regional planning agency based on a temporary development moratorium issued by the agency. The court first holds that it will not conceptually sever each landowner's fee interest into discr...
The court holds that two insurers did not have a duty to defend or a duty to indemnify an insured dry cleaning store owner for soil and groundwater contamination while policies containing absolute pollution exclusion clauses were in effect, but one of the insurers had a duty to defend the insured un...
The court affirms in part and reverses in part a lower court judgment determining that an insurer of the San Diego Bay Port District had a duty to defend the district from a citizen suit alleging that the district breached the public trust doctrine by failing to protect the bay, its animals, and its...
The court enjoins New York City's environmental agency from implementing a September 18, 1998, memorandum allowing slopes that are greater than 15% but less than 20% to be modified to 15% or flatter through the use of fill in order to meet the city's slope requirements for subsurface septic systems....
The court holds that under Colorado law, the insurer of a manufacturer that contributed to the contamination of groundwater surrounding the Rocky Mountain Arsenal must pay the manufacturer $392,286 in unreimbursed settlement payments, but the insurer need not pay $373,158 of the manufacturer's unrei...
The court vacates a district court decision denying Eleventh Amendment immunity to the commissioner of a state environmental agency who allegedly violated the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by taking no action to prevent or respond to environmental contamination on a company's land. T...
The court vacates a portion of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation in which it determined that oil-bearing wastewaters generated by the petroleum refining industry are solid wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), but upheld EPA's determination that recove...