ELR Citation: ELR 20247
No(s). 09-15018 (9th Cir. Sep 15, 2010)

The Ninth Circuit held that a 2001 settlement agreement between a city and a company for cleanup costs incurred at a former pesticide manufacturing plant does not establish a contribution bar against all of the claims asserted against the company in a 2006 action for cleanup costs incurred at a neighboring parcel of property. The city filed suit against the company and other defendants who own or recently owned the neighboring site. These "other" defendants filed cross-claims for contribution against the company. The 2001 agreement contains a release provision that bars the city's claims for cleanup costs, but only to the extent they arose from or were related to contaminants that "emanated from" the site at issue in the 2001 agreement. But it does not bar cross-claims for contribution brought by the current and recent owners of the neighboring site. The contribution bars set forth in CERCLA and California Code of Civil Procedure §§877 and 877.6 protect only against claims by non-parties who received notice of the settlement and had an opportunity to object before the settlement took effect. There is no dispute that the former and current owners of the adjacent property had no notice of the earlier litigation or the 2001 settlement.