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CFC Rejects Taxes Clause as Basis for Recovering Environmental Remediation Costs

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.25.13

On January 13, the Court of Federal Claims in Shell Oil Co. v. U.S. held (1) the government was not liable for CERCLA environmental cleanup costs under the "Taxes" clause in certain World War II-era contracts; and (2) even if the "Taxes" clause had provided for indemnification, any indemnification rights were not preserved after contract termination. The "Taxes" clause and the absence of a reservation of rights to pursue indemnification in Shell is in contrast with the explicit "hold harmless" clauses in the facilities contracts cases in which the contractor reserved its rights to pursue indemnification (Ford and DuPont) and indemnification clauses authorized under Public Law 85-804, which contain explicit post-contract termination provisions.


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Client Alert | 6 min read | 09.02.25

Landmark Proposed Rule May Open American Skies to Expanded Commercial Drone Deployments

For years, the deployment of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, in U.S. airspace has been constrained by regulations that limited how those devices operated when they strayed beyond the sightline of their human controller. Heretofore, regulations required drone operators to receive individual waivers or exemptions when using drones “beyond their visual line of sight,” known as BVLOS. Industry has felt that these regulations have hampered widespread UAS usage in areas such as package delivery, surveying, and farming, among others....