Cookman Realty Group, Inc. v. Taylor

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”) appeals a lower court judgment that construed the Groundwater Protection Act, W. Va.Code §§ 22-12-*4091 to -14, and an accompanying regulation, W. Va.C.S.R. § 47-57-4.1 (1994), as precluding DEP from ordering appellee Cookman Realty Group, Inc. (“Cookman Realty”) to eliminate motor-oil contamination from its property in Grant County absent evidence that Cookman Realty was the originator of such pollution. DEP argues that the circuit court erred in failing to afford proper deference to its interpretation of its own legislative rule,…