An appellate court upheld a $2 million jury verdict against a pulp and paper mill for the impact its discharges into Pigeon River, North Carolina, had on property owners. The lower court did not err in certifying the lawsuit as a class action. Common issues of law and fact predominate, and the uniqu...

A district court denied the U.S. motion to dismiss residents' consolidated claims for damages stemming from the devastating flooding that occurred in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The residents argued that the damage was the foreseeable consequence of at least two defective conditions known b...

A California appellate court upheld a lower court order directing a town to set aside its issuance of a permit to Steve Jobs—co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple—to demolish a historic mansion so he could construct a smaller-single family residence. The town council found that the pro...

A Pennsylvania court upheld a state environmental agency's decision to issue an air quality permit authorizing the construction of a waste coal-fired power plant capable of generating approximately 525 megawatts of electricity. The nitrogen oxide emission limit for the plant met the lowest achievabl...

A California appellate court held that California Government Code §17516c is unconstitutional to the extent it exempts regional water board orders from California's subvention requirement. The case arose after the Regional Water Quality Control Board for Los Angeles issued an NPDES permit for munic...

The court held that under Ohio law, a landowner must exhaust his state remedies before proceeding with his takings claim against a county in federal court. Although Ohio does not have an inverse condemnation statutory cause of action, the owner has not filed a trespass action, a mandamus action, or ...

A California appellate court upheld a lower court decision finding that a manufacturer's product—automobile touch up paint—is exempt from the warning requirements of the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, commonly known as Proposition 65. Because the paint contained toluen...

A California appellate court reversed a lower court's award of damages in a cotton grower's suit against a neighboring oil company alleging subsurface trespass due to the migration of wastewater stemming from the company's oil production activities. The wastewater, pumped out of the deep ground in c...

A California appellate court held that a city did not abuse its discretion in approving a residential and business development project. The city's land use plan envisioned business and residential development in the area. An environmental group argued that the project violated the plan because it wo...

A California appellate court affirmed the dismissal of residents' claims against two groups of water purveyors—one regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC), and the other a group of public entity water suppliers—seeking damages for alleged contamination to their drinking wat...