The court reverses a lower court summary judgment decision upholding the state department of toxic substance control's determination that virtually all corporations with 50 or more employees in the state must pay a hazardous materials charge. This determination amounts to a regulation under the stat...

The court upholds summary judgment in favor of an insurance company over policyholders' claims against it for rejecting a settlement offer in an underlying suit concerning lead poisoning to a young child. The policyholders argued that the rejection constituted bad faith because it exposed them to th...

A court grants in part and denies in part motions to dismiss land purchasers' Comprehensive, Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), negligence, fraud, and state-law claims against an environmental consulting firm and the prior owners. The prior owners sold the land without...

A court holds that a timber company's procurement of a general permit for stormwater discharges stemming from its logging activities in Bear Creek, California, does not render an environmental group's Clean Water Act action against the company moot. The timber company failed to meet its burden to pr...

A court holds that a county did not effect a physical or regulatory taking when it imposed conditions on a landowner's permit to activate a well on its property. The conditional use permit limited the landowner from extracting no more than 12,000 acre/feet per year of water from the aquifer underlyi...

The court holds that a developer was not denied due process in connection with a local land use commission's hearing on his application for a coastal development permit. The developer claimed that telephone conversations with staff led him to believe that he did not need to appear at the hearing. Bu...

The court rejects a mining association's statutory and constitutional claims challenging a 1999 Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) rule defining "valid existing rights." The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act prohibits new surface coal mining operations on certain lan...

The court upholds a lower court decision that the United States has no obligation to reimburse a Florida county for the costs it incurred treating soil and groundwater contamination at the Miami International Air Depot. From 1943 to 1966, the U.S. government maintained and repaired U.S. Air Force ai...

The court upholds the dismissal of local water agencies' claims that the Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) was operating the Central Valley Project (CVP) in a manner that would at some point in the future violate the Vernalis salinity standard, a state standard with which the Bureau must comply in its ...

The court affirms a lower court decision that under California law, an insurance company need not provide coverage for the costs property owners incurred responding to suspected soil and groundwater pollution. A state agency ordered the property owners to test their property after they were suspecte...