The court holds that a trial court improperly granted an individual stigma damages in his breach of contract case against a termite company. The individual and the company entered a contract whereby the company promised to repair termite damage and to retreat the house to prevent or control a re-inf...

The court holds that a trial court erred in not evaluating evidence of environmental contamination and remediation costs related to a company's property that a regional economic alliance, acting for a town, took by eminent domain. The court first holds that excluding contamination evidence, as a mat...

The court affirms in part and reverses in part a trial court decision that the insurance policies of the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) did not provide coverage for an administrative proceeding brought against it by the state environmental agency for contamination at a former prison site, b...

The Tenth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing environmental groups' claims challenging a proposed settlement agreement between Utah and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) concerning the agency's inventory, classification, and management of certain types of BLM and state trust lands. ...

A district court denied a chemical company's motion to dismiss property owners' common-law property claims for damages arising out of alleged continuing airborne vinyl chloride contamination and past groundwater contamination. The owners argued that this "physical invasion" of their property by a ca...

The Eleventh Circuit held an insurance company need not provide legal defense to its insured, an engineering firm, in an underlying lawsuit alleging that it negligently failed to discover construction debris and fuel tanks during an environmental site assessment. The firm argued that the pollution e...

A Texas appellate court vacated a lower court order denying oil refineries' motions to dismiss individuals' personal injury claims stemming from their exposure to allegedly dangerous emissions from the refineries' facilities. Although the individuals recharacterized their allegations as property dam...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court order enjoining the future planting of disputed genetically engineered alfalfa seed pending the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service's completion of an enivironmental impact statement. The district court applied the traditional balancing test, and no...

A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision that the California Fish & Game Commission erred in rejecting a petition to add the California tiger salamander to the list of endangered species under the California Endangered Species Act. The administrative record shows the salamander s...

The Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court decision holding that the U.S. government breached lease agreements it entered into with oil companies to explore for and develop oil and gas resources in the outer continental shelf off the California coast and ordering it to pay over $1.1 billion in resti...