Narrowing the Roads of Private Cost Recovery: Recent Developments Limiting the Recovery of Private Response Costs Under CERCLA §107
Editors' Summary: Despite adding the §113(f) "contribution" provision to CERCLA in 1986, Congress did not indicate whether the section was meant to supplement private parties' efforts to recover response costs form other potentially responsib parties's efforts to recover response costs form other potentially responsible parties under CERCLA §107 or was meant to preclude such cost recovery actions. More and more courts that address this issue are requiring plaintiffs to file §113(f) actions. The differences between the two types of actions are sufficiently significant to render important under which section a party's claim arises.
This Article addresses the differences between the two types of actions and reviews CERCLA's liability scheme and the case law that sets forth the two primary approaches courts have used to address the relationship between §107 and §113(f). the authors suggest a straightforward approach for courts to use that reconciles the various CERCLA provisions that the dichotomy affects.