Center for Environmental Health v. Wheeler

Background

The plaintiffs were Center for Environmental Health, Center for Biological Diversity, and Californians for Pesticide Reform. The defendants included Michael S. Regan, in his official capacity as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Debra Haaland, in her official capacity as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. CropLife America was an intervenor-defendant.

The plaintiffs’ complaint concerned federal agencies’ duties under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act in connection with a consultation about malathion and two other active ingredients. The plaintiffs alleged that the agencies failed to complete required consultation work, unlawfully delayed or withheld required actions, and violated Section 7(d) by making an irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources.

Earlier Settlements

The parties first entered a partial settlement concerning the agencies’ procedural duties to complete a final biological opinion. The court entered that agreement on January 4, 2022. The Fish and Wildlife Service then issued the final biological opinion on February 28, 2022, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would implement the opinion’s terms on March 8, 2022.

The parties later reached a second partial settlement concerning the remaining claims against the Environmental Protection Agency defendants. The court entered that agreement on April 13, 2022. According to the fee agreement, the fee and cost claims were the only claims remaining in the case.

Fee Settlement

The plaintiffs and federal defendants agreed to settle all claims for attorneys’ fees, litigation costs, and expenses incurred in the lawsuit, including expenses related to pursuing those fee claims. Under the agreement, the federal defendants must pay $385,000, and the plaintiffs must accept that amount as full satisfaction of their fee and cost claims through the date of the agreement.

The agreement provides that the payment will be processed through the Department of the Treasury’s Judgment Fund Office. It also requires the plaintiffs to provide payment information and states that the parties ask the court to retain jurisdiction to oversee compliance with the agreement. The agreement does not admit wrongdoing, liability, or any issue of fact or law concerning the settled claims.

Court’s Order

On August 30, 2022, Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong approved and ordered each term of the Stipulation and Final Settlement Agreement for Attorneys’ Fees and Costs. The order did not decide the underlying Endangered Species Act allegations on their merits; it approved the parties’ settlement of the remaining fee and cost claims.