The court affirms a bankruptcy court's denial of a successive owner's motion challenging a settlement agreement entered by the prior owner of a contaminated site, the state of West Virginia, and the town where the site was located, that partially released the successive owner from liability for wate...

The court reverses a district court decision that descendants of a Native American who was fatally injured on a logging site on a Native American reservation in Montana failed to state a cause of action under state law against the United States and that the Federal Tort Claims Act's (FTCA's) discret...

The court reverses a lower court's decision holding that even though the United States breached a fiduciary obligation to a Native American tribe, the United States did not have a trust relationship with the tribe that rendered the breach actionable and subject to monetary damages. In 1964, the trib...

The court holds that it lacks subject matter jurisdiction over a coalition's claims that federal agencies violated a variety of statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, in approving the design and construction of a World War II Memorial on...

The court upholds a district court decision that Louisiana Act 315 of 1940 cannot be applied retroactively to mineral servitudes created prior to the Act but can be applied prospectively to post-1940 transfers. In 1929, a mineral servitude was created for two parcels of land in Louisiana. Between 19...

The court holds that carbon monoxide emitted from a malfunctioning residential heater is not a pollutant under the pollution exclusion clause of a comprehensive general liability policy, and, thus, the insurer has a duty to indemnify and defend the insured. After inhaling fumes from a faulty heating...

The court holds that res judicata bars a manufacturer's declaratory relief action seeking a declaration that insurers must indemnify the manufacturer for claims brought against it for harm caused by the discharge of chemicals to groundwater at a California site. In a prior action, a court held that ...

The court holds that although it has jurisdiction to hear an individual's claim for damages against a city for disrupting his construction project, the individual's due process rights were not violated. The individual was granted the necessary permits to begin preparing the site for the construction...

The court holds that federal sovereign immunity bars an action initiated by the commonwealth of Puerto Rico's environmental agency in an effort to impose restrictions on the U.S. Navy's extraction of waters from a river. During World War II, the Navy obtained a permit from the commonwealth to extrac...

The court holds that an environmental group's claim that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and a state military department violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to prepare an environmental assessment (EA) in connection with plans to build a military center is not ripe. ...