ELR Citation: ELR 20101
No(s). 07-3311 (N.D. Ohio Apr 14, 2008)

A district court granted railroad companies' motions to dismiss several state public nuisance claims filed against them in connection with contamination at the Ashtabula River and harbor in Ohio. The damages sought in those claims were the same as those requested in the plaintiff's Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) §107 cost recovery claims. Where, as here, a plaintiff’s CERCLA and state-law claims seek recovery of the same response costs, CERCLA preempts the plaintiff’s right to recover under the state law. The state's four-year statute of limitations also barred the plaintiff's nuisance claims. And because the plaintiff’s public nuisance claims are tort claims for which only damages for economic loss is sought, Ohio law also bars the claims under the economic loss rule.