Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance Co. v. Harleysville Insurance Co.
An Indiana appellate court reversed and remanded a lower court decision that an insurer need not defend and indemnify a service station owner in underlying state administrative proceedings concerning the environmental remediation of the site. The insurer argued that because the loss occurred pri...
No Wetlands Landfill Expansion v. County of Marin
A California appellate court reversed a lower court decision directing a county board to hear an administrative appeal of an environmental impact report (EIR) and permit for a landfill expansion project. A local environmental enforcement agency issued the permit after considering and certifying ...
Applewood Properties, LLC v. New South Properties, LLC
A North Carolina appellate court held that the state's Sedimentation Pollution Control Act (SPCA) does not apply if there was no deposition of sediment to water. The owner of a golf course claimed that a construction company was liable under the SPCA for damages stemming from land-disturbing act...
Comer v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.
A district court held that the doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel bar individuals' trespass, nuisance, and negligence claims against numerous oil, coal, electric, and chemical companies for damages stemming from Hurricane Katrina. The individuals asserted that the companies' activitie...
Shell Oil Co. v. United States
The Federal Circuit vacated a trial judge's decision requiring the United States to indemnify certain oil companies for environmental cleanup costs under CERCLA. Because the trial judge's wife owned shares in the parent company of two of the defendant oil companies, he decided to sever the two o...
Scottsdale Indemnity Co. v. Village of Crestwood
The Seventh Circuit held that an insurance company has no duty to defend or indemnify a town in underlying lawsuits alleging that it knowingly supplied contaminated drinking water to its residents. In the mid-1908s, town officials learned that one of its water wells was contaminated with perc. B...
Northwest Environmental Advocates v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court held that EPA violated the CWA when it failed to review Oregon's nonpoint source rules. The nonpoint source provisions create exemptions for many sources of pollution in Oregon's waters, including agriculture, forestry, and grazing. EPA claimed that the regulations at issue were...