A group of environmental organizations, headed by the Sierra Club, filed a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen’s lawsuit against the BNSF Railway Company, alleging that the railroad, the only transporter of coal in Washington, illegally discharges coal and coal dust into the waterways of the State of Washington by virtually…
Our colleagues Julia Judish, Dick Oliver and Glenn Sweatt recently published a very interesting client alert discussing U.S. District Court Judge Marcia A. Crone’s issuance of a preliminary injunction that suspends the implementation of certain portions of President Obama’s Executive Order 13673, called the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Executive Order, that…
On October 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the district court and upheld the determination of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). The NMFS concluded that two distinct population species of the Pacific bearded seal subspecies –located in the shallow waters of the Artic—were likely…
On October 17, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia granted summary judgment to Murray Energy Corporation, which sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief against EPA because it has persistently failed to perform a nondiscretionary duty under Section 321(a) of the Clean Air…
We recently posted an interesting blog on Pillsbury’s Policyholder Pulse titled Subrogation Waivers and the Perils of Litigation: Wavering on a Precipice. In it, we discuss the perils of using standard subrogation waivers in your insurance policies, and cautions against the use of standard waivers (which can have unintended consequences).
Our latest Environmental Case Law Update highlights a number of significant environmental and administrative law decisions reported in the period of April-September 2106. We hope you find this information to be useful and informative. Photo: Ian Sane, Silver Creek, Taken November 3, 2012 – Creative Commons
In a decision released on October 11, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit issued a very long opinion (110 pages) which vacates an order of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) that requires PHH Corporation, a large home mortgage lender, to disgorge $109 million in a…
Recently, our colleagues Tamara Bruno, Colin Kemp, Peter Gillon, Vince Morgan and Joseph Jean published an alert titled Hurricane Matthew Requires Immediate Action to Maximize Insurance Recovery to help you weather any storm. Photo: U.S. Department of Agriculture – A MH-60 helicopter from the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) Aviation Training Center…
A few weeks ago, we noted that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, in a decision reported on September 9, 2016, denied a motion for a preliminary injunction filed by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation against the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline through the lands of…
In a decision released on October 6, 2016, the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas, sitting in Houston, unanimously affirmed the jury’s verdict that International Paper Company (IP) was not liable for large civil penalties as a result of the discharge of dioxin-contaminated paper mill waste into the…