The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a petition for writ of certiorari to review questions regarding clean-up activities required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). Atlantic Richfield Co. v. Christian, No. 17-1498. In the suit, Atlantic Richfield seeks to overturn a decision by the…
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A California jury has awarded a $2.055 billion verdict in favor of a California couple, finding Monsanto’s product Roundup likely caused the couple’s cancer. Pilliod v. Monsanto Co., Case No. RG-1786272 (Cal. Super. Ct., Alameda Division). This is Bayer AG’s third consecutive Roundup trial loss since mid-2018 in cases involving claims the product caused cancer….
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The Eighth Circuit for the U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld an $11 million judgment entered against two subsidiaries of Titan International (collectively “Titan”) by a lower court which ruled Titan had improperly sold contaminated buildings to avoid cleanup. United States v. Dico, Inc., No. 17-3462 (8th Circuit 2019). The Court’s holding affirms the lower…
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The United States Supreme Court has granted certiorari in County of Maui, HI v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, et al., No. 18-260, a Ninth Circuit case, as to the question of whether the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source discharge, but are conveyed to navigable waters by a…
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On January 25, 2019, the Texas Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling reversing the lower court’s holding regarding an insurers’ obligation to pay a significant amount of legal defense costs that resulted from its liability in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. See Anadarko Petroleum Corp. v. Houston Casualty Co., No. 16-1013 (Tex. Jan. 25, 2019). The…
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The United States Supreme Court recently held that land may only be designated a “critical habitat” for an endangered species if that same land is first a “habitat” for an endangered species. In Weyerhaeuser Co. v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 139 S. Ct. 361 (2018), the Supreme Court evaluated the United States Fish and…
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The United States Supreme Court has asked the Solicitor General to weigh in on two petitions for writ of certiorari — one Fourth Circuit case, Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., 887 F.3d 637 (4th Cir. 2018), and the other a Ninth Circuit case, Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, 886 F.3d…
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The trial in a climate change lawsuit brought by 21 youths has been stayed after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted the government’s request that it consider halting the case. Juliana v. United States, No. 18-73014 (November 8, 2018), was filed in 2015 and contends the federal government pursued energy policies that caused climate change…
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The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not apply to pollutants that travel through groundwater before entering navigable waters. Tennessee Clean Water Network, et al. v. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Case No. 17-6155 (6th Cir., September 24, 2018). The ruling comes less than two weeks after a…
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The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled discharge of arsenic from a coal ash storage site through groundwater into surrounding waters does not violate the U.S. Clean Water Act and does not require a NPDES permit. Sierra Club v. Virginia Electric & Power Co., No. 17-1895 (4th Cir., September 12, 2018). A three-judge…
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