A Central District of California Judge has preliminarily approved a class action settlement in City of Long Beach, et al. v. Monsanto Company, et al., that will resolve claims by various municipalities against Monsanto Company, Solutia, Inc. and Pharmacia for environmental damages related to PCBs. The underlying basis for the claims are...
By: Abby S. Busler The Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) has issued 60 pages of detailed guidance to reopen businesses, health care facilities and providers, schools, transit, and other industries. This guidance also provides information regarding testing and data to assist with exposure and risk concerns for those industries. The following is...
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued recommendations on May 18 to state and local officials across the country for when nursing homes can relax certain restrictions on visitation, screening, and services related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The recommendations envision moving in three phases. Nursing homes would “reopen” more...
After the Wisconsin Supreme Court struck down the statewide Safer At Home order on Wednesday, May 13, 2020, a number of local governments, at the county, city, and village levels, began issuing their own Safer At Home orders. By Wednesday evening, Brown and Dane Counties had issued orders—as well as the suburban regions of Milwaukee County, which...
By: James M. Kalny On May 13, 2020 the Wisconsin Supreme Court in a split decision, struck down the Executive Order 28 Safer at Home (SAH). The same day the decision was announced counties and some municipalities started enacting their own health orders. In several cases the orders simply stated that the SAH and a couple other executive orders...
By: Sherry D. Coley and Tiffany E. Woelfel May 15, 2020, 4:00 PM Update This article was originally published the morning of May 14, 2020, and was accurate as of the time of publishing. Since publication, a number of additional counties and local governments have implemented Safer At Home Orders. Additionally, a number of counties have...
Under current Wisconsin law, a property owner is generally liable for contamination regardless of when the pollution occurred and regardless of who caused the contamination. There are some limited exceptions for qualifying local governments, lenders, impacted neighbors and persons who obtain what is known as a Voluntary Party Liability...
By: Christopher J. Jaekels The City of Milwaukee recently sent its 2019 "Notice of Assessed Value – Real Property" to City of Milwaukee property owners. In most cases, this Notice of Assessment notifies the property owner of an increase in assessed value and potentially an increase in property taxes. Depending on the size of the increase, the...
Litigation attorneys, Christopher Meuler and Ted Warpinski, authored a post for the American Bar Association’s Environmental and Energy Litigation Blog. Their blog post, The Boundaries of State Assumption of Wetland Permitting Authority Get Tested, discusses the pros and cons of a delegation program authorized by section 404(g) of the Clean Water...
By: Ted A. Warpinski As many landowners, developers and builders know, having to obtain a permit to dredge or fill wetlands can cause substantial delays and increased costs. Some relief is now in sight with the recently enacted Wisconsin Act 183, which became fully effective on July 1, 2018. If the exemptions apply, all that is required is a...
