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CERCLA – Liability

By: Derek Hawkins//November 2, 2021//

CERCLA – Liability

By: Derek Hawkins//November 2, 2021//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Von Duprin LLC, v. Major Holdings, LLC, et al.,

Case No.: 20-1711; 20-1793

Officials: KANNE, BRENNAN, and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: CERCLA – Liability

This is a complex environmental cleanup case out of Indianapolis, Indiana. Over several decades, owners and operators of industrial facilities disposed of chemical solvents used in manufacturing processes. The solvents have degraded over time and have seeped into the groundwater and soil in the surrounding residential area. Investigations showed that vapors emitting from the underground contamination have intruded into homes and a local park.

Von Duprin LLC, whose predecessor in interest manufactured security hardware and once owned property in the area, undertook cleanup efforts and then sought to recover some of those costs as well as future remediation costs. Von Duprin sued former and current owners and operators of adjoining properties under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act—a federal environmental statute often shorthanded as CERCLA. Following a bench trial, the district court found that Von Duprin and two other former or current owners and operators in the area bore responsibility for portions of the environmental harm. The court then assigned liability among and between all three parties. Before us now are an appeal and cross-appeal from lengthy proceedings in the district court.

While we see no error in many of the district court’s rulings, we vacate the court’s threshold determination under § 107(a) of CERCLA that liability for remediating the environmental harm is divisible—capable of being apportioned on the basis of principles of causation—among and between the parties to this litigation. In the end, then, we affirm in part and vacate and remand in part for additional proceedings.

Affirmed in part. Vacated and remanded in part.

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Derek A Hawkins is Corporate Counsel, at Salesforce.

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