Owners of the Arizona Snowbowl ski resort outside Flagstaff asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to award them nearly $270,000 in attorney's fees for a case against them that the court called "a gross abuse of the judicial process."

The suit arose in 2005 when attorney Howard Shanker filed suit against the U.S. Forest Service on behalf of a coalition of Navajos and environmental groups to stop the resort's plan to use reclaimed wastewater to make artificial snow. Shanker lost in U.S. District Court and in the 9th Circuit, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to accept the case.

Shanker refiled virtually the same case with new plaintiffs and was again defeated in District Court and the 9th Circuit. Despite a ruling from the appeals court, which accused Shanker of filing the case "for no apparent reason other than to ensure further delay and forestall development," Shanker again asked the court to reconsider. He was turned down.