47 results for 'cat:"Civil Procedure" AND cat:"Environment"'.
J. Clay finds the lower court erroneously dismissed the adjacent landowner's Clean Water Act claims against the landfill operator on the grounds of claim preclusion. Although some of the issues presented in the lawsuit, including the issue of fill material used at the site, were present prior to the operator's consent decree with the Environmental Protection Agency, the landowner could not have litigated them at that point because Tennessee did not have the authority to issue the proper permits. However, because the landowner failed to follow notice requirements after the landfill operator entered into the consent decree, the lower court properly dismissed the claims in the suit that deal with violations after the decree was signed. Reversed in part.
Court: 6th Circuit, Judge: Clay, Filed On: May 7, 2024, Case #: 22-6118, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Water
J. Moss denies the state of Florida's motion seeking a stay of an injunction entered in a suit brought under the Endangered Species Act pending appeal. Staying the decision would, in effect, deny the environmental groups the preliminary injunctive relief they sought, so the public interest and risk of injury to those groups weigh against a stay. Florida, meanwhile, has not demonstrated that it is likely to suffer an irreparable injury absent a stay, nor that it is likely to prevail on appeal.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Moss, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv119, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: civil Procedure, environment
J. Moss denies the state of Florida's motion for a stay of a prior order granting partial summary judgment to environmental groups in a suit alleging that federal regulators improperly delegated permitting authority to Florida regulators, and denies its motion for final judgment while granting its alternative request for relief in the form of partial final judgment. A limited stay in this case “is neither workable nor desirable,” and would require the Court to develop a program splitting work between different agencies over those agencies’ objections and result in needless redundancy. The final judgment motion is denied because one count, regarding the Army Corps of Engineers’ retained waters list, has remaining controversies to resolve. This count, however, is substantially distinct from the other counts in its legal theory and the administrative record it involves, so final, appealable judgment is entered as to the other counts.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Moss, Filed On: April 12, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv119, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, civil Procedure, environment
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J. Morgan denies a petition by operators of a parish landfill to dismiss its neighbors’ discovery requests for pollution concentration reports and documents on toxic chemicals for its environmental contamination suit. The documents requested by litigants constitute fact work product, which contain no “mental impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal theories of an attorney.” Litigants also have demonstrated need and exceptional circumstances that prevent them from obtaining the same information by other means.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: April 8, 2024, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Discovery
J. Cochran affirms the Board of Water and Soil Resources' denial of administrative appeals of orders requiring the restoration of wetlands the appellants filled with aggregate and soil. State law authorizes local government units to electronically transmit notices of their decisions unless the recipient has provided a mailing address and specified that they prefer mailing. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cochran, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: A23-0642, Categories: Administrative Law, civil Procedure, environment
J. McShan finds that the lower court improperly dismissed the environmental groups' challenge to the approval of a plan transferring ownership of a gas-fired cogeneration plant to a company seeking to power a cryptocurrency mining operation. The groups have standing since they demonstrated that members who live near the plant come from "disadvantaged communities" cited in climate legislation aimed toward protecting them from harmful emissions. Meanwhile , completion of the transfer and associated construction did not moot the challenge by ending the controversy. Reversed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: McShan, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: CV-23-0689, Categories: civil Procedure, Energy, environment
J. Morgan grants a discovery request by suburban New Orleans area residents suing landfill operators for foul odors emitted from 2017 to 2019. The landfill owners are ordered to turn over documents they had declared protected from disclosure by the attorney work product doctrine. Following a private review of the requested records, 22 withheld invoices and certain documents contain no “mental impressions, conclusions, opinions or legal theories of an attorney.”
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Morgan, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2:18cv7889, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Discovery
J. Hummel grants an environmental advocacy group’s motion for joinder, allowing it to also sue an executive for a recycling services company in its Clean Water Act complaint alleging unlawful discharge of industrial stormwater runoff at an industrial park. The court finds the executive a responsible corporate officer tasked with complying with the company’s general permit. The court further grants the advocacy group’s motion to amend so it can add details about the general permit as well as the executive’s alleged involvement.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hummel, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv1025, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: civil Procedure, environment
J. Newman grants the agricultural waste companies' motion for summary judgment, ruling the citizen suit under the Clean Air Act is barred by the diligent prosecution doctrine. The EPA has taken reasonable steps to ensure the companies' compliance with air quality standards, including shutting down portions of their plant through enforcement of a consent decree that contains civil fines for noncompliance.
Court: USDC Southern District of Ohio, Judge: Newman, Filed On: February 12, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv102, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Government
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. 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
J. Earl finds that the trial court properly denied a motion filed by one of 11 plaintiffs in the coordinated State Water Board Cases that sought to intervene all 11 cases. The coordinated cases are challenges to the State Water Resources Control Board's adoption of a water quality control plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary. The San Joaquin Tributaries Authority is not entitled to mandatory intervention, as it lacks either a property or transactional interest in the plan's flow and salinity objectives and it failed to show how any settlement would impair its ability to protect its interests. And permissive intervention would result in unnecessary participation that would further complicate a case that already has 55 names on the service list. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Earl, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: C096511, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Water
J. Richardson denies the waste management defendants' dismissal motion in this lawsuit brought by the City of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, over the alleged mismanagement of a landfill. The complaint sufficiently alleges a "compensable injury or loss" to support the city's negligence claim.
Court: USDC Middle District of Tennessee , Judge: Richardson, Filed On: November 28, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv605, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Negligence
J. Love finds that the trial court properly granted the Port of New Orleans' exception of prematurity and dismissed a group's petition to stop the construction of an international shipping container project. In this case, no construction work has begun on the project, and the project has not undergone the permitting process to receive authorization to begin construction. Further, the trial court clearly stated that the group must exhaust all necessary administrative remedies until the project receives authority from the necessary administrative agencies. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Love, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0323, Categories: civil Procedure, Construction, environment
J. Hart finds that while the county has a legally protected interest in oil and gas wells in its boundaries, the lower court properly dismissed its claims against the Department of Public Health. The increase in inspections to prevent leaks and reduce emissions does not constitute a concrete injury and, therefore, the county lacks standing to bring its claims. Affirmed.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Hart, Filed On: October 16, 2023, Case #: 2023CO54, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Jurisdiction
J. DeGravelles denies a request by the founding president and majority owner of an environmental services company to dismiss its trade secrets theft lawsuit against him, his daughter and a competitor he started. Because an earlier age-discrimination complaint by the founding president against the first environmental services company he started and that company’s present suit against him “do not arise” from the same set of operative facts, the company now suing its founder was not required by rules of procedure to bring its theft claims as counterclaims-in-reply.
Court: USDC Middle District of Louisiana, Judge: DeGravelles, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv866, NOS: Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA) - Property Rights, Categories: civil Procedure, environment, Trade Secrets
J. Wilson finds that the 11th Circuit lacks jurisdiction to consider whether the district court properly denied the holding company's motion to voluntarily dismiss the pipeline company from a third-party action arising after the city sued the holding company and two other entities to recover costs and damages related to soil contamination near a gas plant. The third-party action alleged that the pipeline company and others were liable for the release of pollutants. Parties who voluntarily dismissed their claims through joint stipulations did not all obtain signatures from all parties who appeared in the case, therefore the dismissals were ineffective and the claims remain before the district court. The judgment is not final on all of the claims.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 22-12419, Categories: civil Procedure, environment