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July 08, 2026
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge denied an insurer’s motion for certification for an interlocutory appeal of an order in which the judge found that silica and total pollution exclusions do not bar coverage for underlying silica bodily injury suits filed against an insured after determining that the insurer failed to show that the order presents substantial grounds for a difference of opinion.
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July 08, 2026
ST. LOUIS — A federal judge in Missouri has issued orders appointing a special master and establishing a qualified settlement fund to administer a settlement reached between Doe Run Resources Corp. and its affiliates, and Catholic clergywomen and Peruvian children in a long-running lawsuit over allegations of injuries from a lead smelter Doe Run and its affiliates operated in Peru.
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July 06, 2026
CINCINNATI — The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court did not abuse its discretion when it severed and remanded to state court Michigan’s claims against the Gerald R. Ford International Airport Authority (GFIAA) related to groundwater contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) because the court “identified the relevant statutory grounds, tied them to its severance analysis, and relied on the unusual posture of a once remanded state enforcement action returning to federal court through third-party removal.”
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July 02, 2026
TRENTON, N.J. — In two settlement agreements approved by a federal judge, a group of publicly owned wastewater and sewage authorities and 18 New Jersey counties will rescind objections to judicial consent orders proposed by the state to settle federal claims against 3M and several DuPont-affiliated chemical companies related to contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from activity at DuPont’s Chambers Works plant in exchange for the state shelling out millions of dollars for cleanup projects, clean-water infrastructure and liability protection.
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July 01, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 granted petitions for a writ of certiorari in three cases alleging injuries related to the herbicide Roundup and remanded all three for further consideration in light of the recent ruling in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell.
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June 30, 2026
CHICAGO — The Class Action Fairness Act’s (CAFA) mass action local event or occurrence exception is jurisdictional and applies in a lawsuit over a weeklong industrial facility fire in Richmond, Ind., as “the fire is ‘an event or occurrence’ from which all claims in the action arose,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, addressing a question it said was one of first impression and finding that the trial court did not err by raising the question of the mass action exception sua sponte.
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June 30, 2026
DENVER — A 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a New Mexico federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the United States challenging a state agency’s definition of hazardous waste in a renewed permit issued to the Cannon Air Force Base (AFB). The panel held that the judge erred in ruling that the case had to be heard in the New Mexico Court of Appeals and was wrong to decline to hear the case because of a related state court proceeding.
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June 30, 2026
PADUCAH, Ky. — A ferrosilicon producer in a pollution cleanup coverage dispute filed its third summary judgment motion, opposing a reinsurer’s bid for dismissal and arguing that the contractual record establishes that the reinsurer assumed an insurer’s liabilities under a pollution legal liability policy and cannot avoid the suit by relying on an affidavit addressing discovery-barred topics or on inapposite reinsurance authority.
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June 29, 2026
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A Pennsylvania appellate panel has remanded a benzene injury case to the trial court with instructions that it issue a supplemental opinion to provide findings of fact and conclusions of law addressing forum non conveniens factors that the panel said the trial court did not adequately analyze in its ruling denying a defendant’s motion to dismiss.
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June 26, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A federal magistrate judge in New York has issued a report recommending that a lawsuit brought by flight attendants who say that they were injured by exposure to jet fuel while on the job should remain in federal court because JetBlue Airways Corp. and Airbus Americas Inc. were likely fraudulently joined to defeat diversity.
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June 26, 2026
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — In a chemical exposure case brought by residents against the town of Brookhaven related to its operation of a landfill, a New York appellate panel has ruled that the federal discovery rule under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) preempts New York’s toxic tort statute of limitations even though the landfill in question is not a Superfund site. As a result, the panel affirmed a trial court decision that denied the town’s motion to dismiss the case.
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June 26, 2026
NEW YORK — A study published in an environmental research journal suggests that exposure to two specific types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) is associated with the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly among women.
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June 25, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a divided opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25 found that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) expressly preempts a state law labeling requirement that differs from the federal labeling requirements imposed under FIFRA for the herbicide Roundup, reversing a Missouri appellate court’s decision and remanding the case.
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June 25, 2026
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Department of Justice on June 24 announced a consent decree that it said is valued at a minimum of $450 million to resolve claims for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) contamination from facilities operated by the Chemours Co. and an affiliate in West Virginia, New Jersey and North Carolina. Chemours issued a press release confirming the settlement, which calls for Chemours to pay a $22.5 million civil penalty and pay for pollution control programs to mitigate PFAS discharges.
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June 24, 2026
ST. LOUIS — In light of a federal judge in Missouri’s decision to send back to state court a case in which objectors are seeking to halt a $7.25 billion nationwide Roundup settlement, the Missouri state court judge who granted preliminary approval of the settlement issued a memorandum order on June 23 saying that “the Court believes it may be in the best interest of the case to delay the final approval hearing” and inviting any party that wants to be heard at the final approval hearing to file a brief stating its position on a delay.
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June 22, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 denied a petition filed by a group of individuals who objected to the $600 million class action settlement in the Ohio train derailment lawsuit and appealed a lower court’s requirements pertaining to an appeal bond in that litigation. The petitioners had argued that “the notion an appeal bond must be separately appealed, and cannot be challenged by motion within the appeal to which it relates, represents a split of authority among circuits.”
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June 19, 2026
FORT WAYNE, Ind. — An Indiana federal judge largely refused to exclude plaintiffs’ experts’ testimony in a long-running groundwater contamination lawsuit against RTX Corp. and other defendants, while barring a psychiatrist from opining on the reasonableness of the plaintiffs’ emotional distress.
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June 18, 2026
ST. LOUIS — After a Missouri federal judge remanded a case challenging the $7.25 billion nationwide Roundup settlement to state court on June 17, finding that the parties objecting to the settlement are not defendants and cannot remove the case to federal court, the objecting parties filed a notice in the district court indicating that they will appeal the remand ruling.
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June 17, 2026
SANTA ANA, Calif. — As lawsuits continue to mount against GKN Aerospace Transparency Systems Inc. related to a May chemical incident involving methyl methacrylate (MMA) at its Orange County, Calif., facility, more residents have filed a putative class action in California state court alleging gross negligence related to the endangerment of public health stemming from the incident.
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June 17, 2026
CLEVELAND — A federal judge in Ohio has remanded to state court a glyphosate cancer case against Monsanto Co. related to the herbicide Roundup, ruling that the local hardware store that was added as a defendant was not fraudulently joined and, therefore, the federal court does not have jurisdiction.
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June 15, 2026
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — An Ohio federal judge has lifted a stay, permitting a magistrate judge to rule on pending motions challenging the admissibility of experts in Ohio’s lawsuit against the operator of the train that derailed in 2023 and spilled toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio. Meanwhile, intervenors filed a complaint challenging a $311,175,000 proposed consent decree that would resolve some of the claims in the case, arguing that the decree is based on a “fundamentally false factual premise” about the remaining risks posed by contamination.
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June 15, 2026
HONOLULU — A federal magistrate judge in Hawaii on June 12 recommended approval of the U.S. government’s petition for a good faith determination of a settlement with 367 plaintiffs for amounts ranging from $5,000 to $27,000 in two consolidated lawsuits related to groundwater contamination from a jet fuel spill at the Pearl Harbor Naval Base. The same day, the plaintiffs filed a response in support of the government’s petition, and nonsettling parties filed a statement incorporating their prior brief filed in opposition to a separate-but-related settlement.
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June 12, 2026
WICHITA, Kan. — A Kansas federal judge denied a motion to exclude experts retained by a woman seeking to represent a class of residents whose properties were allegedly contaminated by migrating chemicals that originated at an industrial railroad site and denied the railroad’s motion to dismiss the putative class action.
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June 12, 2026
MARINETTE, Wis. — A Wisconsin state court judge has approved a $10 million settlement between the state and Tyco Fire Products LP to resolve claims related to contamination of drinking water and the environment at large from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) that emanated from Tyco’s Fire Technology Center (FTC).
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June 12, 2026
RICHMOND, Va. —A West Virginia water authority argues that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should affirm a lower court’s ruling that “carefully analyzed” the arguments and concluded that a class action settlement over injuries from a chemical spill in the Elk River was not breached. The authority contends further that the appellant “largely ignores” both the language of the agreement and the lower court’s order.