Applying California law, the court holds that trespass and nuisance claims for land and groundwater contamination fall within the pollution exclusion clause of a company's insurance policy. After the company was sued by a city for contaminating the city's land and surrounding waters, the company fil...

The court holds moot property owners appeal of a district court's denial of their motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin federal funding and construction of a proposed business park. The property owners claim that the business park poses an imminent threat to the environment, and that the par...

The court dismisses environmental groups' petition to review the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC's) refusal to initiate an Endangered Species Act (ESA) §7(a)(2) consultation regarding its ongoing regulatory authority over a power company's Hells Canyon complex in Idaho. The court first...

The court holds that a group of rock climbers lack standing to challenge as a violation of the Establishment Clause the National Park Service's voluntary closure of Devils Tower National Monument in its final climbing management plan (FCMP). The FCMP asks rock climbers to voluntarily refrain from cl...

The Court holds that the tribal exhaustion doctrine does not require a district court to abstain from deciding whether Native Americans' tort claims arising from uranium mining on their reservation constitute public liability actions under the Price-Anderson Act. The defendant companies filed suit i...

The court holds that it lacks jurisdiction over an appeal from a judgment that assessed Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act response costs and damages against a dry cleaning company for perchloroethylene contamination at a shopping center. The court first holds that...

The court holds that landowners are due no compensation from the United States after the federal government entered their property to sink wells and monitor groundwater migration from an adjacent contaminated property. The court first holds that under federal law, special benefits to a landowner's r...

The court holds that a district court properly reduced a $15 million punitive damage award to $4.35 million in a nuisance and trespass case against a mining company that contaminated neighboring property owners' streams. The court first holds that the district court did not err in reducing the award...

Applying Texas law, the court holds that an insurer properly denied an oil company coverage for a discharge of pollutants that contaminated adjacent property and waterways. The pollution was caused when a drilling pit collapsed in the company's well. The court first holds that the insurer legitimate...

The court holds that a commercial property owner may bring a negligent remediation claim against the owner of a gasoline station for damages allegedly caused by gasoline that leaked from the station's underground storage tanks (USTs). The property owner, however, cannot bring strict liability, tresp...