566 results for 'cat:"Environment"'.
[Consolidated.] J. St. Eve finds that the lower court properly found for the lead paint manufacturers in a series of toxic tort cases brought by 170 plaintiffs who allege injuries from exposure to white lead carbonate, a paint pigment. After plaintiffs in the first two waves of litigation met with defeat, the court correctly extended those rulings to the remaining plaintiffs on issue preclusion grounds. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: St. Eve, Filed On: February 9, 2024, Case #: 22-2636, Categories: environment, Tort, Class Action
J. King finds in partial favor of the county against the gas company's complaint that the county stopped accepting the plant condensate, a byproduct of its landfill gas conversion process, resulting in the closure of the gas company's landfill gas processing plant. The gas company argues that the plant condensate eventually makes its way to Puget Sound so the gas company's operations are subject to a Clean Water Act permit, but the plant condensate goes through a complicated process before reaching Puget Sound without traveling through a non-point source like the groundwater in the cited "County of Maui" to navigable waters.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: King, Filed On: February 9, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv542, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: environment, Water, Contract
J. Robinson finds for the state in environmental claims brought against a chemical manufacturing facility accused of contaminating the environment by "using, manufacturing, and discharging per- and polyfluoralkyl substances" because the new corporation contractually assumed the liabilities of the previous corporation.
Court: North Carolina Business Court, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: February 7, 2024, Case #: 2024-NCBC-5, Categories: environment
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J. Bury grants the Center for Biological Diversity's motion for summary judgment against the Environmental Protection Agency. The Center for Biological Diversity sufficiently showed in court that the EPA violated the notice and comment mandates for issuing “new use” pesticide registrations for OTT dicamba for cotton and soybean crops. The court vacates the 2020 registrations for XtendiMax, Enginia, and Tavium.
Court: USDC Arizona, Judge: Bury, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 4:20cv555, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Government, Negligence
J. Whipple finds that the agency properly denied the request for an adjudicatory hearing related to its prior decision to rescind a "remediation in progress" waiver on a property formerly used to manufacture automobile batteries. The RIP waver did not suspend the need to remediate an industrial establishment, and the company lacked legitimate grounds for the continued delay of remediation of the site. Affirmed.
Court: New Jersey Appellate Division, Judge: Whipple , Filed On: February 5, 2024, Case #: A-0511-22, Categories: environment
J. Robinson finds that the district court improperly dismissed recovery claims brought by a trust established to continue environmental remediation at former General Motors plants after the automaker went into bankruptcy in 2009. A consent decree governing contaminant cleanup in a creek near GM's Syracuse plant did not foreclose attempts at recovery from dozens of other companies for possible contributory damage in the wider watershed, as the agreement did not address trust liability there. Meanwhile, the request seeking reassignment to a different judge on remand should be rejected.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: February 5, 2024, Case #: 22-1589-cv, Categories: environment, Damages
Per curiam, the appellate division finds that the trial court properly granted a petition seeking to annul approval of a plan to reconfigure the viaduct portion of an interstate highway over environmental concerns. The officials took the requisite "hard look" at air quality and stormwater management, and the groups failed to establish they had a "clear legal right" to relief. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: CA 23-00388, Categories: environment, Agency
J. Perry grands the landfill's motion to dismiss neighbors' environmental tort claims alleging the improper handling of radioactive materials. The neighbors' claims arise out of a nuclear incident and are therefore preempted by the Price-Anderson Act. The fact that the nuclear waste was mixed with soil, diluting its concentration below the regulatory level of .05%, does not remove this case from being controlled by the Act.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Missouri, Judge: Perry, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 4:18cv672, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Tort
J. Boyle grants partial summary judgment to a utility pipeline firm in this suit for right-of-way to restore land on which it had begun to build a 600-mile underground line to funnel natural gas from West Virginia to North Carolina. Recently, the firm abandoned the project and now seeks permission to restore the land, and its motion is unopposed by the landowner.
Court: USDC Eastern District of North Carolina, Judge: Boyle, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 4:18cv15, NOS: Land Condemnation - Real Property, Categories: Corporations, environment, Property
J. Garry finds that the lower court properly rejected a challenge to the decision approving subdivision of a property in a protected mountain area. The property owner, a trained biologist and forestry professional, performed his own environmental analysis, and a consulting professional engineer conducted review. Meanwhile, plaintiffs had standing since two plaintiffs lived close to the affected area. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Garry, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: CV-22-2337, Categories: environment, Property
J. Rearden approved a consent decree between the federal government and a construction company that was found to have violated the Toxic Substances Control Act via its violation of certification and training requirements, poor recordkeeping practices, and its use of lead and failure to warn about toxic materials. The company could not pay the full civil penalty, so the government has agreed to a $606,000 settlement.
Court: USDC Southern District of New York, Judge: Rearden, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv7838, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Construction, environment, Settlements
J. Stanfill finds that the lower court judgment should be vacated and the appellants' petition for judicial review dismissed based on a lack of jurisdiction. The petition sought review of an email from the mining coordinator of the Department of Environmental Protection, but the email being challenged is not "a final agency action." Vacated.
Court: Maine Supreme Court, Judge: Stanfill, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 2024ME10, Categories: Civil Procedure, environment
J. Jackson grants summary judgment to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, upholding the agency’s 2014 decision to remove the Louisiana Black Bear from a list of endangered species after determining that its population had recovered from the threat of agricultural land clearing efforts in the early 1990s. The Service’s decision to delist the Louisiana Black Bear was lawful and not arbitrary or capricious, as litigant-nonprofit organizations alleged. The Service’s conclusions about the viability of the current Black Bear population were “based on its reasonable assessment of the best available scientific evidence.”
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: Jackson, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 3:20cv651, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Evidence, Government
[Modified.] [Consolidated.] J. Mesiwala changes two paragraphs and denies a rehearing with no change in judgment. The trial court properly upheld the approval of amendments that will extend long-term water contracts between the Department of Water Resources and local government contractors to 2085. The amendments do not violate the Environmental Quality Act, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Reform Act or the public trust doctrine. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Mesiwala, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: C096304, Categories: environment, Water
J. Morgan grants a request by parish residents, ordering operators of a landfill to produce hundreds of documents without redactions for their suit alleging the dump fouled the air in their area from 2017 to 2019. Lawyers for the landfill argued with limited success that they properly withheld the records under attorney-client privilege doctrines. The requested records pertained to work the landfill operators performed during the ordinary course of business, rather than in anticipation of litigation, as attorneys for the dump unsuccessfully argued.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Communications, environment, Government
J. Cain grants a request for a preliminary injunction, barring the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice from enforcing any disparate impact mandates under Title VI laws against racial discrimination. The state of Louisiana has established an injury and, therefore, has standing to challenge the extra-regulatory requirements the EPA is imposing upon the state.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv692, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, environment, Government
J. O'Rourke holds that the trial court must revisit an Environmental Quality Act challenge to the approval of a supplemental environmental impact report for a shipping container terminal at the Port of Los Angeles. The trial court found that emissions mitigation measures in the report were unenforceable, in violation of the Act. But it erred in limiting the range of remedies it could impose on the port to ordering a revised report, while allowing continued operations at the terminal. The port abused its discretion in making a greenhouse gas offset fund a term of the terminal's lease instead of enforcing it as a mitigation measure. And it failed to support its decision to reduce the compliance rate with a requirement for vessels to slow down near the port. Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: O'Rourke, Filed On: January 22, 2024, Case #: D080902, Categories: environment, Transportation
J. Wozniak finds that the trial court properly dismissed this constitutional challenge in favor of Beachline and the Secretary of Florida Department of Environmental Protection brought by Waters of Orange County for an injunction. The waters argue for reversal of the order but there is no cause of action under the charter provision. “If political subdivisions were able to continue actions to enforce ordinances that conflict with general law, the political subdivisions would have the power to frustrate the ability of the Legislature to set policies for the state.” Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Wozniak, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 6D23-1412, Categories: Constitution, environment, Injunction
J. Welch finds that the lower court improperly reversed a decision by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to issue fifteen permits to a company for its proposed construction of a chemical manufacturing complex at a site located along the Mississippi River near communities where a majority of the population is Black. The department's decision to issue the permits was not in violation of the Clean Air Act or its "public trust duty." Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Welch, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 2023CA0578, Categories: environment, Property, Agency
J. Bastian finds in favor of the U.S. Forest Service against the conservation organization's complaint that the agency wrongfully authorized the Twisp Restoration Project, violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by not properly informing the public about the project and not allowing meaningful public participation. The final environmental assessment fits with NEPA's requirements, because it identifies specific prescriptions for each authorized activity by disclosing the project area and where the project area vegetation treatment would be, and it details what to do if ground conditions differ from the expected conditions.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Washington, Judge: Bastian, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv293, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: environment, Government
J. Moor finds that the trial court should not have granted a petition challenging a real estate development's compliance with the Environmental Quality Act. The petition was filed more than one year after the city issued a notice of determination, which started a 30-day statute of limitations.
Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Moor, Filed On: January 17, 2024, Case #: B326033, Categories: environment, Real Estate, Zoning
J. Lynch finds that the lower court properly declined to renew claims seeking removal of an elevated highway on Buffalo's waterfront known as the "Skyway" because no new facts were presented to support renewal, and constitutional claims concerning the environmental review process had not been raised previously. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Lynch, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 536098, Categories: Civil Procedure, environment