The court affirmed a district court holding that pollution exclusion clauses in two comprehensive general liability policies issued by an insurer to an Oregon lumber company precluded the insurer's duty to defend the company from a nuisance action brought by the company's neighbors. The neighbors al...

The court holds that the Endangered Species Act's (ESA's) application to private lands in order to protect an endangered species that lives entirely within one state does not violate the U.S. Commerce Clause. The court first holds that the regulated activity in question—construction of a housing d...

The court affirms a trial court's exclusion of the testimony in an eminent domain case of a property owner's expert as to the value of the property if it was operated as a landfill. A city initiated an eminent domain action over the property, and during property valuation the owner sought to introdu...

The court affirms the dismissal of property owners' claim that a consulting firm negligently announced that land neighboring the owner's property was suitable as a potential landfill site even though the land was farmland and, thus, could not be used for a landfill. The landowners claimed that this ...

The court affirms a district court decision denying a biomedical association's motion to intervene in an alternative research group's challenge of a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) animal research regulation as well as the association's motion to vacate a subsequent stipulated dismissal entere...

The court holds that the Emergency Low-Income Housing Preservation Act's (ELIHPA's) and the Low-Income Housing Preservation and Resident Homeownership Act's (LIHPRHA's) mortgage prepayment restrictions did not effect a per se taking of residential apartment building owners' property. The Acts prohib...

The court reverses a district court decision and holds that a group of developers may intervene as of right in a suit brought by environmental groups against a city and against local, state, and federal officials for violating a state environmental plan and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The city...

The court upholds the reversal of a trial court's grant of judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) in favor of a chemical manufacturer that was denied insurance coverage for soil, groundwater, and surface water pollution at one of its sites. Shortly after purchasing the site in 1964, the manufac...

The court holds that losses from environmental injury claims involving decades of commercial activities at numerous industrial and waste disposal sites may not be aggregated as a single disaster and/or casualty under an insurance policy between an insurer and its reinsurer. The insurer sought paymen...

The court vacates a preliminary injunction barring enforcement of a Vermont labeling statute as it applies to manufacturers of mercury-containing light bulbs. The court first holds that the lamp manufacturing association challenging the statute failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits of...