ELR Citation: 41 ELR 20134
No(s). 09-370 (D.N.H. Mar 21, 2011)

A district court held that the current owner of a service station may be held liable under CERCLA for the actions of its predecessor and therefore dismissed the owner's motion for summary judgment. The owner's predecessor allegedly generated and then disposed of waste oil at the site between 1982 and 1986. Although the current owner purchased its predecessor's business in 1999, the owner argues that it purchased only certain limited assets and therefore bears no responsibility for the costs of environmental remediation for dumping that took place before 1999. Successor liability may be found if the transaction is determined to be a de facto merger or if the successor is a "mere continuation" of its predecessor. Based on the evidence presented, the court cannot conclude with certainty that the new service station was created by a de facto merger with the predecessor service station or that it was a mere continuation of the previous operation. However, there is a genuine, unresolved dispute concerning the current service station's status. As such, the owner failed to meet its burden of demonstrating an absence of genuine issues of material fact that would entitle it to summary judgment on the issue of successor liability.