The court holds that the discretionary function exception to the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) barred an individual's FTCA claim against the National Park Service for failure to repair or improve a drainage ditch and head-wall along a road in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. After h...

The court affirms a district court decision finding the insurer of a former pesticide manufacturing plant liable for only $11,297 of the approximate $4 million the manufacturer spent remediating soil and groundwater contamination at the plant. The manufacturer owned the plant from 1950 to 1968, over...

The court holds that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) prior to the permitting of three casinos on the Mississippi coast. Mississippi law requires casinos to be located on floating vessels...

The court affirms a lower court decision holding an individual liable as an operator of a landfill under the Illinois Environmental Protection Act (IEPA). The court first holds that a review of the record as a whole shows that the individual was a landfill operator. Thus, the instant case is not lik...

The court vacates a district court decision granting summary judgment in favor of an oil company claiming that a Hawaii statute proscribing the maximum rent that oil companies can collect from dealers who lease company-owned service stations is an unconstitutional regulatory taking. The court first ...

The court holds that under Virginia law, an insurer has a duty to defend operators of a dry cleaning business from a suit seeking to hold the operators liable for soil and groundwater contamination. The insurer issued a comprehensive general liability policy to the operators for the period of 1991 t...

The court affirms in part and reverses in part various rulings made by a district court resolving the claims and counterclaims of a lessee and three lessors of several oil and gas leases in Huerfano County, Colorado. The lessors' general claim was that the lessee breached the lease agreements by und...

The court upholds the validity of an Ohio state regulation that requires owners and operators of underground storage tanks (USTs) who wish to receive compensation from the state's UST fund to submit an eligibility application to the state UST compensation board within one year of the date that an ac...

The court holds that an insurer had no duty to defend a cement manufacturer in a suit brought by property owners and individuals alleging damages caused by the manufacturer's emissions. The manufacturer's insurance policy includes an absolute pollution exclusion clause that provides that the policy ...

The court dismisses a property owner's complaint alleging that a New York City watershed memorandum of agreement (MOA) and its regulations violated the U.S. Constitution, the state constitution, and state statutory and common law. The court first holds that the owner's claims that the MOA and its re...