The Fifth Circuit held that a mass action lawsuit in Louisiana concerning personal injury and property damages due to alleged contamination exposure may not be removed to federal court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). The plaintiffs filed an amended petition that substituted deceased plai...
West Virginia's highest court held that individuals' lawsuit against a power company for injuries they allegedly incurred due to their exposure to coal combustion waste may go forward in the West Virginia courts even though the vast majority of plaintiffs live outside the state. Of the 77 named plai...
The Eleventh Circuit held that a developer is entitled to a charitable deduction on its 2006 tax return for granting a conservation easement on an 82-acre parcel of property that contained a bald eagle nest. The developer valued the parcel at $25.2 million on the assumption that the property's highe...
The Washington Supreme Court held that a local initiative to create a "Community Bill of Rights" which, among other things, would give the Spokane River its own water rights, including the rights to sustainable recharge, sufficient flows to support native fish, and clean water, may not be placed on ...
The Supreme Court of Alabama reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing a coastal property owner's lawsuit against an oil company for alleged trespassing and property damage stemming from the company's response actions following the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. After the spill, h...
A district court held that environmental and animal rights groups may challenge the constitutionality of two trespass statutes passed by the Wyoming legislature in 2015. Under the statutes—one imposing criminal liability and the other imposing civil—a person will be held liable if he or she: (1)...
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld FERC's "demand-response" rule under which operators of wholesale electricity markets, in specified circumstances, must pay the same price to providers for conserving energy as to generators for producing it. During peak periods, electricity rates increase dramatically, ...