A California appellate court upheld the dismissal of developers' petition to set aside design guidelines for a development project in North Hollywood. The design guidelines are not a zoning ordinance and, therefore, need not comply with the procedural and individualized notice requirements of the st...
A district court dismissed a landowner’s fraud and conspiracy counterclaims against the Virgin Islands on grounds of sovereign immunity. The Virgin Islands government filed suit against the landowner under CERCLA and state law for allegedly releasing hazardous substances onto its land and into...
A California court voided an agreement between California and the four major Southern California water agencies (Metropolitan Water District, Imperial Irrigation District, Coachella Valley Water District, and San Diego County Water Authority) concerning the allocation of water from the Colorado Rive...
The Supreme Court of Vermont reversed and remanded a lower court’s decision that granted a corporate officer’s motion to dismiss the complaint of a property owner for trespass and nuisance. Contrary to the lower court's decision, the complaint alleged facts sufficient to find liability. ...
A California appellate court affirmed a lower court’s decision to vacate an ordinance issued by the City of Manhattan Beach, which prohibited certain retailers from distributing plastic bags to customers at the point of sale, until the city prepared an environmental impact report pursuant to the C...
The Nevada Supreme Court reversed and remanded a lower court decision that held that the Nevada State Engineer did not violate his statutory duty by failing to rule on the water appropriation applications of a regional water authority within one year of the protest period closing. At the time the ap...
A district court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment to dismiss personal injury plaintiffs' claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress relating to the improper disposal of hazardous waste. Relying on prior caselaw, the court held that a plaintiff asserting a claim for inten...
A district court denied a property seller’s motion for judgment on the pleadings, finding that the sale agreement between the seller and buyer did not bar statutory claims asserted by the buyer under CERCLA, RCRA, and the Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act. The court held that, although ...
The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed a lower court decision that a county ordinance, which included provisions regulating water quality at confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), was valid. Plaintiffs, associations of cattlemen and dairymen, argued that the ordinance was invalid because (1) it was i...
The South Carolina Supreme Court reversed an administrative law court (ALC) decision to find that the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) properly exercised its authority under the CZMA in denying a stormwater permit for a developer to fill in isolated freshwater wet...