The Indiana Supreme Court held that an agreed order for environmental cleanup between a manufacturing company and the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) is an agency action governed by the Indiana Administrative Orders and Procedures Act, not a contract that will support a claim f...

A California appellate court held that the owner of a contaminated site may not intervene in an action between the prior owner and its insurer over coverage for the contamination. California law generally prohibits third parties from suing an insurer when they are not in contractual privity, and the...

The Federal Circuit held that conservation groups lack standing to pursue their Endangered Species Act (ESA) §9 claim against various federal agencies and officials for failing to enforce a ban on importing endangered and threatened fish but that they may have standing to challenge the agencies...

The D.C. Circuit upheld a final order issued by the Department of the Interior (DOI) requiring an energy company to retroactively recalculate royalties owed to the U.S. government under its lease to extract coalbed methane from federal land in Wyoming. In its disputed order, DOI held that the market...

The D.C. Circuit denied a petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) interpretation of the term "markets" as used in an amendment to the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act that created exceptions to a utility's mandatory purchase obligation to buy energy from qualifyi...

The Sixth Circuit held that a group of 300 landowners may not divide their class action nuisance suit against a paper mill into five separate water pollution claims to avoid federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA). The landowners divided their suit into five separate suits co...

A California appellate court held that a lower court properly applied the responsible corporate officer doctrine to hold the corporate officers of an entity that owned an underground storage tank personally liable for violations of the state's tank laws governing the underground storage of hazardous...

A California appellate court held that the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) did not abuse its discretion in listing di-isodecyl phthalate (DIDP) as a chemical known to cause reproductive toxicity under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, commonly known ...

A California appellate court held that the resident of an apartment complex that failed to limit secondhand smoke in outdoor common areas sufficiently pled a cause of action for public nuisance. The complex, by failing to act, created a condition that was harmful to health or obstructed the free use...

A California appellate court affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of an automobile manufacturer that was sued for breach of warranty and deceptive advertising with regard to a hybrid vehicle's fuel efficiency. An individual who purchased the manufa...