On March 3, 2017, the D.C. Circuit reinstated the rule promulgated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) in 2012 to remove the Northern Rocky Mountain gray wolf in Wyoming from the endangered species list under the Endangered Species Act (“ESA”). Defenders of Wildlife v. Zinke, –F.3d.–, 2017 WL 836089 (D.C. Cir. Mar. […]
The Colorado Supreme Court recently issued a decision that significantly reduces an employer’s liability in cases where both the employer and the employee are sued for injuries caused by the employee while performing job duties. In Ferrer v. Okbamicael, 2017 CO 14, decided on February 27, 2017, a pedestrian sued a taxi cab company […]
Last Year, WSMT blogged about whether water could be lawfully appropriated for Marijuana cultivation. 2/11/16 blog post. We provided three arguments why that would be allowed. Almost exactly a year later, the Division water referee agreed In Re High Valley Farms, LLC, 14CW3095 with two of the reasons we set forth in our blog from last […]
In a state that has been described as having “world class wind,” a boast hard to ignore during a winter that featured days upon days of wind gusts reaching 80 mph at times, wind energy has struggled to find a secure toehold due to the vice-like grip traditional extractive mineral industries have on the energy […]
On March 3rd, the attorneys of Welborn Sullivan Meck & Tooley will embark on our annual ski trip to Arapahoe Basin in the White River National Forest. We look forward to the trip as a highlight of each winter season and, if we’re being honest with ourselves, a highlight of the year when all the […]
A recent Colorado Court of Appeals decision involves two parts of the statutes regarding the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (Commission): the pooling statute and the statute regarding payment of proceeds of production. In Grant Brothers Ranch, LLC v. Antero Resources Piceance Corporation, ___ P.3d __ (2016), 2016 COA 178, the court held that […]
On February 1, 2017, Representative Jason Chaffetz (UT-R) announced that he would pull a bill proposing to sell more than 3 million acres of public land. It was easy to lose track of this sea-change proposal amidst the flurry of activity at the advent of the Trump administration, but the bill’s goal – as well […]
On January 31, 2017, President Trump nominated Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, a Coloradan and judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals (“Tenth Circuit”), to fill the open seat on the United States Supreme Court that has been empty since Justice Antonin Scalia died on February 13, 2016.i Judge Gorsuch was nominated to the Tenth […]
After nearly a decade of uncertainty, Utahns and visitors alike are looking forward to certainty on two key issues: (1) public access to and (2) navigability of the Beehive State’s premier rivers. It all started with Conatser v. Johnson, where the Utah Supreme Court held that the scope of the public’s easement in state […]
The Colorado Supreme Court recently addressed two previously unsettled issues that will impact other water users in Grand Valley Water Users Ass’n v. Busk-Ivanhoe, Inc., 14SA303 (2016). First, the Court held that imported transbasin water may not be stored in the basin of import prior to first use unless the decree expressly authorizes it. The […]