More Real Estate Coverage
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March 13, 2024
EPA Designates First Navajo Nation Superfund Site
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is adding the Lukachukai Mountains Mining District in northeastern Arizona to its National Priorities List, with the district's uranium mining waste piles marking the first designated Superfund site on the Navajo Nation.
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March 13, 2024
Subpoenas Can't Skirt USPTO Discovery Rules, 4th Circ. Says
In a precedential ruling, the Fourth Circuit said Wednesday that companies can't use the subpoena power of the courts to go beyond the limits of discovery that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office puts on deposing employees in foreign countries.
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March 13, 2024
NC City Asks State Justices To Review Homebuilders' $5M Win
The North Carolina city of Greensboro urged the state's high court to review the $5.25 million judgment won by D.R. Horton Inc. and True Homes LLC in the homebuilders' class action accusing the city of charging illegal preservice water fees.
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March 13, 2024
Tower Taxes To Partly Fund $10B Midtown NYC Bus Terminal
Tax revenue from up to three private towers would help pay for a $10 billion replacement of the aging Port Authority Bus Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, under a deal approved by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, New York City Mayor Eric Adams and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
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March 13, 2024
House Passes Bill To Streamline Federal Office Usage
The U.S. House of Representatives has voted in favor of a bill that would require federal agencies to track occupancy of office space and trim or consolidate underutilized space, months after a government watchdog report uncovered notably low occupancy rates at agency headquarters.
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March 13, 2024
Cozen O'Connor's Lobbying Arm Adds Land Use Expert In NY
The former chair of New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Board of Standards and Appeals has joined Cozen O'Connor Public Strategies, an affiliate of the international law firm Cozen O'Connor, as a senior principal.
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March 13, 2024
EB-5 Suit Says Hotel Project Tricked Non-English Speakers
A real estate investment company is facing a proposed class action in California federal court alleging it took advantage of immigrant investors' limited English by fraudulently making them agree that the company and an Embassy Suites project could keep their investments indefinitely.
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March 12, 2024
Committee Approves Bill Aimed At Blocking New Mining Rule
The House Committee on Natural Resources voted Tuesday to approve a bill aimed at blocking a proposed rule amendment by the Biden administration that would tighten the permitting process for mining projects deemed critical by the federal government despite concerns from Democrats over impacts to the environment and Native American sacred sites.
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March 12, 2024
Judge Questions If Citibank Can Avoid Escrow Theft Burden
A Washington appellate judge questioned Tuesday if Citibank and a loan servicer could escape liability after a rogue escrow agent stole nearly $1 million from a real estate company's refinancing deals, suggesting during oral arguments that the bank gets loan payments as successor lender and should bear some burden.
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March 12, 2024
La. Property Owners, Insurers Settle $5M Hurricane Ida Fight
Lloyd's of London and other insurers and underwriters have agreed to settle claims by a group of New Orleans-area property owners who allege the insurers wrongly denied more than $5.1 million in claims from Hurricane Ida damage after the insurers demanded the dispute be resolved in arbitration.
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March 11, 2024
Corps Says Groups Can't Show Dredging Permit Was Flawed
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and an Enbridge Inc. unit told the Fifth Circuit that several groups challenging a permit issued for dredging and construction for the expansion of a major oil terminal on Texas's Gulf Coast may want a different outcome but can't show any permitting decisions were flawed.
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March 08, 2024
NY AG And Judge In Trump Case Receive Death Threats
New York Attorney General Letitia James and the judge who oversaw her civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump each received death threats inside powder-laced envelopes that triggered a massive security response late last month, according to police and court officials.
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March 08, 2024
SEC's Scaled-Back Climate Regs Still Pose Major RE Burdens
Public real estate companies won't have to track the emissions of tenants under a dialed-down climate rule adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, yet new regulations still create a significant volume of disclosure requirements.
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March 07, 2024
$285M Panama Canal Case Must Be Reviewed, Justices Told
A contractor enlisted on a multibillion-dollar project to widen the Panama Canal is urging the U.S. Supreme Court not to ignore an "open conflict" among lower courts over the vacatur standard for evident partiality, as the justices get ready to issue a certiorari decision that will likely come later this month.
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March 07, 2024
Feds Designate 1.1M Acres Of Habitat For Imperiled Fla. Bat
In a move conservation groups characterized as much welcomed and long delayed, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated about 1.1 million acres in southern and central Florida as critical habitat for the endangered Florida bonneted bat.
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March 07, 2024
Caribbean Resort Developer Says Partner Undermined Project
An Aspen, Colorado, developer of a Caribbean golf resort has accused one of his partners in Colorado state court of violating a non-compete provision by working on similar projects that were located too close to the luxury development.
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March 06, 2024
Federal Lawmakers Want To Protect 172 Acres For Calif. Tribe
Legislation introduced by two U.S. senators would place 172 acres into trust for a California tribe in an effort to bring its members back to its reservation where they can develop a permanent home.
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March 06, 2024
PacifiCorp Must Pay $42.4M To Oregon Fire Victims, Jury Says
A Portland jury said Tuesday that electric power company PacifiCorp must pay $42.4 million to compensate another 10 victims of devastating Labor Day fires that burned in Oregon in 2020, with thousands more class members awaiting potential trials.
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March 06, 2024
Colo. Panel OKs Conservation Easement Tax Credit Extension
Colorado would extend its conservation easement income tax credit program through 2032 and increase the statewide caps on the credit under legislation approved by a Senate committee.
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March 06, 2024
Wash. Court Says Landlord Must Face Tenant's Bias Defense
A Washington appeals court has ruled that a lower court failed to address a woman's disability discrimination defense during a hearing in her landlord's eviction suit and told the lower court to consider her defense on remand.
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March 05, 2024
Court Has No Cause To Deny Casino Land Request, Tribe Says
A Michigan tribe urged the D.C. Circuit to reverse a lower court's ruling blocking it from acquiring land for two casino developments, arguing there's no dispute it bought the land to generate gaming revenue and that the Supreme Court and Congress have recognized its endeavor.
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March 05, 2024
Utah Sues Feds To Reopen 195 Road Miles In San Rafael Desert
Utah is suing the U.S. government in a bid to toss a Bureau of Land Management decision to close 195 miles of roads in a San Rafael Desert area known as the Red Rock Wilderness, arguing that the closures don't align with an earlier BLM plan.
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March 05, 2024
DC Circ. Leery Of Challenges To Nuke Waste Storage Site
A D.C. Circuit panel on Tuesday didn't appear convinced by challenges to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of a temporary nuclear waste storage site in New Mexico.
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March 05, 2024
8th Circ. Affirms Ax Of Tribe's Drilling Approval Challenge
The Eighth Circuit upheld the U.S. Department of the Interior's approval of eight drilling applications on Tuesday, rejecting the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation's argument the drilling sites violated a tribal "setback" regulation barring drilling within 1,000 feet of Lake Sakakawea.
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March 04, 2024
What To Know About 9th Circ. Ruling On Tribe's Sacred Site
A split Ninth Circuit ruling that a sacred tribal site in Arizona's Tonto National Forest can be transferred to a copper mining company is certain to be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court by the San Carlos Apache Tribe, which contends that the decision effectively bulldozes a long-held worship site and ultimately denies the tribe's freedom of religious expression, despite the panel's skepticism of that claim.
Expert Analysis
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Pipeline Projects Face New Questions On Landowner Rights
The tension between the rights of landowners and pipeline developers has come to a head in two federal appellate courts and a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announcement, muddling the historical clarity of Natural Gas Act eminent domain authority, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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2 Del. Decisions Call Out Conflicted Controlling Stockholders
In Tornetta v. Musk and the BGC Partners Derivative Litigation, the Delaware Chancery Court has reaffirmed that concerns over controlling stockholders may be valid even when the controller didn't intend to exercise coercive influence, independent directors negotiated a transaction, or stockholders approved the transaction, say attorneys at Fried Frank.
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Midstream Agreements Can Still 'Run With The Land'
Colorado's federal bankruptcy court recently held that a gas gathering and processing agreement and a salt water disposal agreement were "covenants running with the land," and were not extinguished through a bankruptcy sale. The ruling is welcome news for upstream and midstream companies in the oil and gas space, say attorneys at Davis Graham.
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How New York Crafted Its Own Green New Deal: Part 3
There may be reason to doubt the feasibility of some of the ambitious goals that New York's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act sets for emissions reductions and renewable energy production, and the state's ability to completely transform its electricity and transportation sectors, say attorneys with Vinson & Elkins.
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How New York Crafted Its Own Green New Deal: Part 2
New York state's recently enacted Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act lays out ambitious energy production and emissions goals and an aggressive timeline for achieving them — but does not mandate any particular strategies for doing so, say attorneys with Vinson & Elkins.
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How New York Crafted Its Own Green New Deal: Part 1
New York state's recently enacted Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act is aggressive, extraordinary and far-reaching in its aims, but its ultimate effects on the energy, transportation and real estate industries are in many ways still uncertain, say attorneys at Vinson & Elkins.
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Utilities Need Timely Project Review For Reliable Service
National Parks Conservation Association v. Semonite, in which a Virginia utility faces possibly having to dismantle a previously approved transmission line due to drawn-out litigation, points to the need for time limits on court review of infrastructure projects, say Alan Seltzer and John Povilaitis of Buchanan Ingersoll.
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Legal Options For Pipeline Companies Stymied By Tree-Sitters
While a Virginia federal judge recently rejected efforts by Mountain Valley Pipeline to join two unnamed tree-sitters as defendants in a Natural Gas Act eminent domain action, the court's opinion points toward other remedies available to pipeline companies facing tree-sitter obstruction, says Arthur Schmalz of Hunton.
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2nd Circ.'s Seminal Rejection Of FCPA Conviction Challenge
With United States v. Seng, the Second Circuit became the first federal appellate court to reject a challenge — per the Supreme Court's decision in McDonnell v. United States — to a Foreign Corrupt Practices Act conviction, sending an important message to companies attempting to comply with the expansive anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA, say attorneys at Nixon Peabody.
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Superfund Redevelopment At 20: Continuing Challenges
Even as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund Redevelopment Initiative celebrates its 20th anniversary, two key barriers to success remain, and are unlikely to change — the program’s chronic underfunding and the statute’s unforgiving liability scheme, says Linda Larson of Nossaman.
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The Eminent Domain Consequences Of Knick Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Knick v. Township of Scott is unlikely to cause a flood of federal takings lawsuits in Georgia and the Carolinas, but it may bring other eminent domain considerations for state and local governments, say attorneys at Parker Poe.
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Climate Change And Insurance: Insurers' Subrogation Claims
Once the litigation floodgates open for property damage lawsuits against greenhouse gas polluters, a second wave of subrogation claims brought by first-party property insurers is likely to follow, say José Umbert and Jason Reeves of Zelle.
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5 Key Issues In Acquiring Transportation Infrastructure Assets
There is a growing trend of governmental agencies contracting and leasing viable operating transportation infrastructure assets. Such opportunities for the private sector may exist in connection with any contemplated upgrade, extension or other modification of an asset that a governmental entity needs to finance, say José Morán and Juan Gonzalez of Baker McKenzie.