The court holds that the doctrine of res judicata does not bar landowners' third-party state-law contribution and indemnification claim against a neighboring company for cleanup costs the state incurred in its efforts to remedy petroleum contamination on the landowners' property. The company previou...

The court holds that a trial court properly dismissed a property owner's third-party complaint against an oil company for reimbursement of any cleanup costs the owner was required to pay to the state of New York in connection with gasoline contamination at the property. The oil company's predecessor...

The court dismisses an individual's Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit against an electricity company for lack of standing. The individual claimed that a company violated the CWA by discharging pollutants into Echo Bay, New York. The court first holds that although the individual's amended interroga...

The court dismisses on ripeness grounds an environmental group's claim that the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and Executive Order No. 11990 with respect to the proposed e...

The court holds that the U.S. Forest Service's decision not to require its contract pilots to have a specific type of training is protected by the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The families of two pilots who died when the airtanker the pilots were flying dur...

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...