A California appellate court held that an insurance company had no duty to defend or indemnify its insured, a furniture stripping business, in underlying suits against it stemming from the release of chemicals into a public sewer system. The case arose after a private contractor repairing sewer line...

A California appellate court held that the California Coastal Act of 1976 does not grant the California Coastal Commission the power to declare property an "environmentally sensitive habitat area" during the administrative appeal from a local government's grant of a coastal development permit. The C...

The Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court judgment finding the U.S. Forest Service liable under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) for failing to correct or warn of a dangerous condition on a snowmobile trail that led to an individual becoming gravely injured. The discretionary function exception to th...

A magistrate judge denied an insurer's motion for summary judgment in a case seeking coverage for damages sustained to a building during the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. The insurance policy contained a pollution exclusion clause, but because of the "virtually boundless" arr...

The D.C. Circuit held that a lower court improperly dismissed individuals' National Environmental Policy Act and National Historic Preservation Act claims against the Secretary of the Army and developers in connection with the closure and redevelopment of Fort Ritchie, a former U.S. Army base in wes...

The Fourth Circuit denied motions to dismiss North Carolina's common-law nuisance action against the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) alleging that its coal plants emit various pollutants that travel through the atmosphere into the state, thereby adversely impacting human health and environmental qu...

A California appellate court rejected a petition to invalidate a regional district's annexation of 144,000 acres of coastland. Although the public notice for a protest hearing failed to include a statement of reasons for the annexation, this was not prejudicial. Nor was any potential ambiguity in th...

The Tenth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of Colorado's Clean Indoor Air Act. The Act bans smoking in indoor areas, but it expressly exempts from this general prohibition "airport smoking concessions" such as airport restaurants and bars. A coalition of tavern and bar owners filed suit challeng...

A California appellate court upheld the California Coastal Commission's denial of a coastal development permit to build a home. The commission determined that the property contains an "environmentally sensitive habitat area" that had not been designated in the Los Angeles County land use plan and th...

The Eighth Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did not violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it implemented certain revisions to the operational document for the Missouri River Mainstem Reservoir System without preparing a supplemental environmental impact statemen...