The court holds that the Eleventh Amendment does not immunize a receiver of estate trusts from being sued solely in its representative capacity. The state of California filed suit against the trustees of a manufacturer's estate to recover cleanup costs at the plant. At the trustees' request, the Con...

The court holds that a district court did not abuse its discretion in finding expert testimony concerning a corporation's claim of land contamination by a neighboring company to be unreliable. The corporation's contamination claim arose as a response to a trespassing counterclaim that the neighborin...

The court holds that a developer's takings claim against the United States is barred by 28 U.S.C. §2501's six-year statute of limitations. Two developers claim that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' denial of a permit application to construct a levee, and the Corps' subsequent selection of an alter...

The court holds that under Louisiana law, the successor to a former oil company is directly liable for the cleanup costs of an abandoned oil lease site. When the original lessee conveyed to the company an oil and gas lease, the company consented to the inclusion of a covenant to clean up the leased ...

The court upholds the U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI's) decision to deny lessors' request to cancel their Native American oil and gas lease because of the lessee's royalty underpayment violations. The court first holds that the lessors' constitutional argument is meritless. Instead of arguin...

The court holds that the Interstate Commerce Commission Termination Act (ICCTA) preempts state and local environmental review of a rail carrier's reacquisition and reopening of the Stampede Pass railroad line in Washington State. The court first holds that the plain language of two sections of the I...

The court holds that the Eleventh Amendment does not bar the removal from state to federal court of a power plant's federal and state claims against a state environmental agency. The power plant filed claims in state court against state and county environmental agencies after they claimed that the p...

The court holds that, under Ohio law, excess insurance policies that "follow form" to—or provide coverage on the same terms as—underlying unbrella insurance policies incorporate a pollution exclusion endorsement included in the underlying policies. The pollution exclusion endorsement was added t...

The court holds that a Maine town's solid waste flow-control ordinance, coupled with its grant of an exclusive hauling and disposal contract to a local contractor, does not violate the dormant U.S. Commerce Clause. The court first holds that the town's ordinance does not discriminate on its face aga...

The court affirms a district court's grant of summary judgment to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on a toxicologist's claim that EPA violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by hiring a contractor to convene and conduct an external peer review of benzene's carcinogenic effec...