More Real Estate Coverage
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January 02, 2024
Pipeline Project Asks Court For Access To Harris County Land
An energy company constructing a natural gas pipeline through southeast Texas asked a state court Tuesday to appoint several Houston landowners to assess the amount of damages that will be owed through its access to land in Harris County.
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January 01, 2024
Energy Legislation And Regulation To Watch In 2024
While a looming presidential election means that significant Congressional action on energy policy likely isn't in the cards, there are big-ticket regulatory items that are poised to cross the finish line. Here are several legislative and regulatory moves that energy attorneys will be watching in 2024.
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December 22, 2023
Property Plays: Seyfarth, Taurus, Sila Realty
Seyfarth Shaw guided a $98 million sale of two Arizona office buildings, Taurus Investment Holdings has sold a Florida business park for $42.75 million, and Sila Realty Trust has sold a Texas hospital for $258.4 million.
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December 22, 2023
PHH Mortgage Loan Officers Win Collective Cert. In OT Suit
A group of loan officers has won certification as a class in a collective action that alleges PHH Mortgage Corp. violated labor laws by not calculating and paying overtime pay correctly.
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December 21, 2023
Zoning Regs Prohibit Gun Club's 'RV Park,' Wash. Judges Say
A proposed Spokane-area shooting range can't offer overnight parking for recreational vehicles during sporting events, the Washington Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday, agreeing with a neighboring cemetery that county regulations prohibit RV parks within the rural zone encompassing the site.
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December 21, 2023
Investment Tax Credit Regs Could Limit Renewable Gas
The Inflation Reduction Act contained major tax breaks for the biogas industry, but recent proposed rules for the law's investment tax credit could leave producers of renewable natural gas, a refined form of biogas used as transportation fuel, out in the cold.
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December 21, 2023
Montana Camp Operator Seeks Stay In Tribal Lease Dispute
A Montana campground operator is asking a federal district court for a stay on an order that found in favor of the Blackfeet Indian Nation in a decadelong land lease dispute, saying the ruling will likely cause it to liquidate its assets before an appeal on the issue is resolved.
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December 21, 2023
Utica Owes Coverage In Slip-And-Fall Suit, Travelers Says
Travelers told a New York federal court Thursday that the insurer for a subcontractor owes primary coverage to the primary contractor for an underlying suit claiming a pedestrian slipped on wet concrete outside a Bronx construction site.
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December 21, 2023
Keep Mortgage Fraudster In Jail While Appealing, Feds Say
The federal government urged a New York federal judge to not allow a woman convicted of bank and wire fraud out on bail pending her appeal, arguing her reasoning for bail is unsupported and she shouldn't be allowed to walk free.
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December 21, 2023
Finnish Asset Manager Sells 17 Properties For €100M
A unit of Finland's eQ Group agreed Thursday to sell 17 healthcare properties to an affiliate of Danish real estate investment company Nrep for roughly €100 million ($110 million) in a deal aimed at improving efficiency for its Helsinki operations.
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December 21, 2023
Feds, Osage Nation See Win In Wind Farm 'Mining' Row
A federal judge in Oklahoma largely granted summary judgment to the U.S. government and Osage Nation in their long-running wind farm dispute with Enel Green Power North America Inc. and two subsidiaries, and ordered the ejectment of 84 wind turbines after the companies failed for years to get a required mineral lease.
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December 21, 2023
How Miami Law Firms Combined To Meet Condo Law Demand
To help meet a spike in the demand for condominium and construction law expertise in South Florida, Haber Law recently brought on the entire seven-attorney team from boutique Gursky Ragan PA, which specializes in construction and condominium law. Law360 Pulse recently caught up with the founders of the two firms to learn more about the combination and the market for their services in the Sunshine State.
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December 20, 2023
9th Circ.'s 1st Hidden Rain Damage Ruling Favors Insurers
Taking up the matter of hidden water damage for the first time, a Ninth Circuit panel affirmed that former insurers of a Washington condo don't have to cover more than $8.9 million in wind-driven rain damage because the claims came decades too late.
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December 20, 2023
Biden Admin Tells 10th Circ. To Uphold Monument Rulings
The Biden administration is urging the Tenth Circuit to back a pair of lower court rulings finding its two proclamations redesignating large swaths of southern Utah as part of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments do not exceed presidential limits under federal law.
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December 20, 2023
DOJ, CFPB Hit Texas Lender With 1st Predatory Lending Suit
The U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have brought a precedent-setting predatory lending suit against a Texas real estate developer and lender, alleging that it participated in a "bait and switch land sale scheme" that targeted Spanish-speaking borrowers.
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December 20, 2023
Developer Faces Accessibility Suit Over 3 NYC Properties
The Fair Housing Justice Center has filed suit against New York City developer Chess Builders LLC and a handful of affiliates and architect partners in federal court, saying fair housing testers reported numerous inaccessible features at three new developments.
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December 20, 2023
The Biggest Environmental Regulatory Actions Of 2023
The Biden administration continued to strengthen environmental regulations during 2023, finalizing rules that imposed new asbestos reporting requirements, banning some uses of hydrofluorocarbons and cracking down on methane emissions, as well as floating a new proposal to control greenhouse gas pollution from power plants — but a signature Clean Water Act action was dealt a devastating blow by the U.S. Supreme Court. Here are some of the top environmental policy developments in 2023.
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December 19, 2023
Ga., Park Service Want Out Of Suit Over Island's Feral Horses
The U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service authorities and two Georgia commissioners told a state federal judge Tuesday that a lawsuit claiming they unlawfully allowed malnourished feral horses to run roughshod on Cumberland Island must be thrown out.
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December 19, 2023
Sackett Warrants Win For La. Landowner, 5th Circ. Says
The Fifth Circuit declared "enough is enough" Monday, freeing a Louisiana pine timber plantation from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' claim that its property contains Clean Water Act-protected wetlands, citing a recent important U.S. Supreme Court decision.
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December 19, 2023
FERC Approved Unneeded La. LNG Pipeline, DC Circ. Told
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unlawfully approved an unneeded project when it gave the go-ahead to a Tellurian subsidiary's $1.4 billion plan to construct 67 miles of gas pipelines in Louisiana to feed a liquefied natural gas export terminal, environmental groups told the D.C. Circuit.
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December 19, 2023
Chiesa Shahinian Makes Leadership Moves For RE 'Explosion'
Chiesa Shahinian and Giantomasi PC has announced a reorganization of its real estate department with the establishment of teams for taxation and for redevelopment, land use and zoning, and the promotion of longtime experts from within the firm to lead them.
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December 18, 2023
Contractor Brings $285M Arbitrator Bias Case To High Court
A contractor enlisted on a multibillion-dollar project to widen the Panama Canal has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review an Eleventh Circuit decision refusing to vacate $285 million in arbitral awards, arguing the justices must resolve lingering confusion over the vacatur standard for evident partiality.
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December 18, 2023
Kentucky Urges 6th Circ. To Revive WOTUS Suit
Kentucky on Monday urged the Sixth Circuit to revive its lawsuit challenging the federal government's controversial rule defining its jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.
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December 18, 2023
Alaska LNG Enviro Review Still Lacking, DC Circ. Told
The U.S. Department of Energy continues to unlawfully discount the climate change harms associated with a $43 billion liquefied natural gas project in Alaska despite performing a supplemental environmental review, environmental groups told the D.C. Circuit.
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December 18, 2023
Oil Co. Defends Appeal In Fraud Suit Against Pittsburgh Firm
An oil and gas producer alleging it was defrauded by a Pittsburgh-based law firm in a land purchase deal defended its appeal to the Third Circuit, asking the court to reinstate its fraud litigation against Tucker Arensberg after the case was dismissed as time-barred.
Expert Analysis
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ABA Is Defending Profession's Values From Monied Influences
A recent Law360 guest article suggested that the American Bar Association ignored new opportunities for the legal industry by opposing nonlawyer ownership of law practices, but any advantages would be outweighed by the constraints nonlawyer owners could place on the independence that lawyers require to act in the best interest of their clients, says Stephen Younger at Foley Hoag.
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CORRECTED: New Tax Credits For Renewables Should Offer Investors Relief
The Inflation Reduction Act's changes to tax credits for renewable energy projects should finally liberate tax equity investors from the restraints of the complex and onerous federal anti-abuse regime, says Kay Hobart at Parker Poe. Correction: Because of an editing error, a previous version of this article incorrectly characterized tax enforcement regimes in North Carolina and other states. This error has been corrected.
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Inflation Reduction Act A Boon To Hydrogen, Carbon Capture
The Inflation Reduction Act's tax credits and direct payments, extension of existing renewable electricity subsidies, and other benefits will accelerate hydrogen and carbon capture projects across the U.S. — and will likely draw capital into the country that would otherwise have gone to projects elsewhere, say attorneys at Shearman.
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Public-Private Partnerships Can Enable Infrastructure Repairs
As governmental entities at all levels continue to face intense financial pressures to fund operations, programs and benefit plans, public-private partnerships are a nonconventional funding method that may help address aging infrastructure, say Peter Hutcheon and John Lushis at Norris McLaughlin.
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New Constitution In Chile Would Affect Infrastructure Projects
If Chile's new draft constitution is approved in next week's referendum, it will significantly alter the state's role in the economy — so investors in infrastructure projects must prepare for the possibility of heighted environmental protections and more state control of natural resources, say Craig Miles and Vanessa Alarcon Duvanel at King & Spalding.
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Pre-Permit Best Practices For Texas Solar Farm Proposals
Excerpt from Practical Guidance
When entering the pre-permit phase to construct and operate a solar farm in Texas, the developer's legal counsel should carefully establish definitions for key terms, including what constitutes an environmental permit, in order to ensure a smooth and flexible review process, says Larry Pechacek at V&E.
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New Mass. Law A Step Forward For Offshore Wind
Recently enacted legislation in Massachusetts demonstrates the state's commitment not only to its renewable energy and greenhouse gas reduction goals, but specifically to supporting development of offshore wind projects — as well as development of transmission infrastructure to connect those projects to the grid, say attorneys at Day Pitney.
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HUD Chicago Finding Reflects Biden's Enviro Agenda
A recent final finding issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development regarding relocation of a Chicago recycling facility illustrates how leveraging nonenvironmental statutes to force change and address environmental justice issues can work in practice, say J. Michael Showalter and Samuel Rasche at ArentFox Schiff.
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3 Trends To Watch In US Offshore Wind Development
As the offshore wind industry continues to build momentum in the U.S. with billions of dollars in new infrastructure spending and offshore lease sales, developers should keep an eye on emerging solutions to grid connectivity, expansion into new potential lease areas and more, say attorneys at V&E.
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Inflation Reduction Act Loan Funds Will Aid Energy Innovation
By providing an extra $70 billion to the U.S. Department of Energy's Loan Program Office, the Inflation Reduction Act has the potential to significantly increase financing for innovative energy production and storage projects — and to do so in a fiscally responsible manner, say attorneys at Kilpatrick.
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What 5th Circ. Bankruptcy Ruling Means For FERC Authority
The Fifth Circuit’s recent ruling in Gulfport Energy v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission begs the question as to whether FERC regulations sufficiently protect pipelines from the effects of customer bankruptcies, and highlights the conflict between the commission and bankruptcy courts, say Keturah Brown and Emily Mallen at Sidley.
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Justices Could Tighten Fraud Statute In Ex-Cuomo Aide Case
The U.S. Supreme Court has an opportunity to overturn the conviction of an aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in Percoco v. U.S., thereby restraining federal prosecutors' use of the honest services fraud statute and confining its application to cases of true public corruption, says Scott Coffina at Montgomery McCracken.
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A Look At 2 Frameworks For Decarbonizing Heavy Industry
Comparing common themes in two recent international frameworks for decarbonizing heavy industry reveals recent progress toward lowering emissions and highlights the key role the industrial sector will play in decarbonization efforts, say attorneys at Shearman.