Environmental Lawyer Blog

Property owners rely on the protection afforded by the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution to shield them against the government improperly interfering with their property rights. The Takings Clause requires “just compensation” to be given to the property owner if the government takes property for public use. For example, if the government takes a person’s land to build a public park, the government must pay him the value of the land. A decision this month by the U.S. Supreme Court adds new uncertainty to that protection by ruling that the property owner must show that the property right allegedly taken was sufficiently “established” under state law.
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Landmark NYC Verdict Hailed as Socially Significant for Corporate Environmental Accountability

Greenberg Glusker today announced that Firm Partner Robert S. Chapman is a finalist for the 2010 Public Justice Trial Lawyer of the Year Award for his successful representation of New York City in a trial against Exxon Mobil Corporation. The City charged Exxon Mobil with poisoning it’s groundwater and drinking water supply with the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE). After an 11-week federal court jury trial, which was the first of nearly 200 MTBE cases nationwide to go to trial, Chapman and his team obtained a $104.7 million compensatory damage award holding the oil company responsible for the groundwater contamination.
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The Ninth Circuit recently joined the Eighth and Tenth Circuits in finding that non-settling parties can intervene in litigation to oppose settlements between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other settling responsible parties under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act or CERCLA. This decision is significant because it may delay and raise the cost of these settlements and may actually discourage them from being made at an early stage. (Read the Ninth Circuit case here, United States v. Aerojet General Corporation)

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