Asarco LLC v. Union Pacific Railroad Co.
A district court held that a settlement agreement bars a mining corporation from seeking contribution from a railroad company under CERCLA for environmental liability related to the Omaha Lead Superfund site in Omaha, Nebraska. Both parties owned the site at different times between 1871 and 1997. It...
Waldburger v. CTS Corp
The Fourth Circuit held that the discovery rule set forth in CERCLA §309 preempts North Carolina's 10-year limitation on the accrual of real property claims. The case arose after landowners filed a nuisance action against a corporation for allegedly contaminating their well water with concentrated ...
Sahu v. Union Carbide Corp.
The Second Circuit affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of a chemical manufacturing company sued by several individuals seeking to recover from injuries allegedly caused by their exposure to soil and drinking water polluted by hazardous wastes produced at a pesticide plant in ...
Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Ford
Maryland's highest court denied requests to reconsider two of its prior rulings in which it reversed a lower court's decision awarding residents punitive damages for emotional distress and medical monitoring. Below, the residents claimed that an oil company was responsible for contaminating their gr...
Exxon Mobil Corp. v. Albright
Maryland's highest court denied requests to reconsider two of its prior rulings in which it reversed a lower court's decision awarding residents punitive damages for emotional distress and medical monitoring. Below, the residents claimed that an oil company was responsible for contaminating their gr...
National Cotton Council of America v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Sixth Circuit vacated a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule exempting from the Clean Water Act's (CWA's) national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) permitting requirements pesticides applied in accordance with the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The ...
United States v. D.S.C. of Newark Enterprises, Inc
A district court held, in an unpublished opinion, that a company that sold its facility, including equipment that contained asbestos dust and waste, may not be held liable as an owner or operator or as an arranger under CERCLA. Nearly 20 years after the company sold the site, the new owner abandoned...
Doe Run Resources Corp. v. Lexington Insurance Co.
The Eighth Circuit held that pollution exclusion clauses preclude an insurance company's duty to defend a lead producer in an underlying lawsuit alleging damages stemming from the release of hazardous wastes or toxic substances, but they do not preclude coverage in a lawsuit alleging that the lead p...