Civil Procedure › Zoning, Planning & Land Use › Commercial Law & Contracts

Rogers Towers: Municipal Liens vs. Mortgages: Florida’s Supreme Court Rules on Superpriority Issue

In my April 18th post, I discussed the recent trend of municipalities enacting ordinances designed to give their code enforcement liens “superpriority” over prior-recorded mortgages. Basically, the municipalities have sought...more

Court Upholds Zoning Ordinance That Restricts Location Of Medical Marijuana Collectives And Cooperatives

An owner of a medical marijuana collective challenged a county zoning ordinance that restricts the location of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives to commercial and manufacturing zones. The court of appeals...more

Appellate Notes: Week of April 18th

Welcome to our Supreme and Appellate Court summaries webpage. On this page, I provide abbreviated summaries of decisions from the Connecticut appellate courts which highlight important issues and developments in Connecticut...more

U.S. District Court Says BLM Must Address Environmental Impacts of Fracking - Court Finds Fracking Operations are Subject to NEPA...

In an order addressing hydraulic fracturing (fracking) on federal lands, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the National Environmental...more

Earth Matters - April 2013: Fracking Moratorium Leads to Termination of Oil and Gas Leases

In 2008, then-Governor David A. Paterson directed the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to supplement its environmental impact review of oil and gas exploration in New York to consider the...more

CBD v. Salazar And The Way Forward For Fracking In Federal Minerals

On March 31, 2013, a magistrate judge with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in issuing...more

Appellate Notes: Week of March 18, 2013

In This Issue: - SC18921- Redding Life Care, Inc. v. Redding - SC18846- Bauer v. Bauer - SC18947- State v. Charlotte Hungerford Hospital - AC34075- Carrillo v. Goldberg - AC33764- Alarmax...more

Ninth Circuit Orders Endangered Species Act Case To Be Reheard En Banc

On March 5, 2013, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ordered Natural Resources Defense Council v. Salazar, 1:05-cv-01207, to be reheard en banc pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 35(a) and...more

Mineral Claims And The Duty To Consult In Yukon

On December 27, 2012, the Yukon Court of Appeal handed down its decision in Ross River Dena Council v Government of Yukon, 2012 YKCA 14. The decision related to an appeal of Mr. Justice Veale’s decision regarding the claim of...more

Abstention Trumps Arbitration In Tenth Circuit

The Tenth Circuit this week refused to consider a plaintiff’s substantive arguments about its right to arbitrate because it found abstention was appropriate under the Colorado River doctrine. D.A. Osguthorpe Family P’ship v....more

Gaming Legal News - July 25, 2012 • Volume 5, Number 18

In This Issue: - THE CARCIERI CHALLENGE: PROVING “UNDER FEDERAL JURISDICTION [AS OF 1934]” by Dennis J. Whittlesey: The June 18 Supreme Court ruling in Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band (“Gun Lake Band”) v. Patchak...more

The Shale Play Today - April 2012

In This Issue: - USEPA Issues New Air Regulations for Oil and Gas Industry - Pa. Supreme Court Endorses Subjective Test in Jedlicka - Update on Pa. Municipality Act 13 Lawsuit - Morgantown, W.Va. Works Around...more

CEQA Limitations Period Tolling Agreements Upheld By First District Court of Appeal

Rejecting intervenors’ challenges to a pre-litigation tolling agreement between a CEQA plaintiff (Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, or “SPAWN”) and Marin County, in an action challenging the EIR for a countrywide...more

Marzulla Law Legal Report - November 2011

In This Issue: - No Good Deed Goes Unpunished - Efforts to Settle One Case Lead to Another The U.S. Court of Federal Claims recently found the federal government liable for breach of contract under which, in...more

Case Study: Oasis West Realty V. Goldman

On May 16, the California Supreme Court handed down a decision holding that an attorney may violate his duty of loyalty by publicly opposing a development project that he at one time had been engaged to promote. Oasis West...more

California Supreme Court Sets Oral Argument for December 2010

The California Supreme Court has scheduled oral argument in three civil cases for hearing in Los Angeles in December 2007. Cortez v. Abich, which will address the extent of the household domestic service exception to...more

Campus Associates L.L.C. v. Zoning Bd. of Adjustment of Twp. of Hillsborough

Landowner has Standing to Challenge Denial of Land Use Approvals

An owner of real property challenged the local zoning board's denial of a use variance application brought by a contract purchaser. On appeal, the court held that the landowner did have standing. ...more

County Commissioners Improperly Rejected Lowest Bidder for Alleged Prevailing Wage Violations

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the Franklin County Board of Commissioners abused its discretion and improperly disqualified The Painting Company’s lowest bid for painting services on the Huntington Ballpark based...more

Appellate Advice On What Is NOT a "Reasonable" In-Lieu Fee

Herewith, a fascinating tale of impact fees, a development agreement, and a city’s power to radically change the former in light of the latter – and whether anyone but the parties should know about the outcome. Please see...more

Commercial Litigation Brief - Spring 2008

In This Issue: There are probably two main reasons why true litigators love what they do: the sheer variety of cases they encounter, and the intellectually challenging nature of the issues that arise in those cases....more