ELR Citation: ELR 20271
No(s). 08-3168 (N.D. Cal. Oct 4, 2010)

A district court dismissed, without prejudice, a company's third-party complaint against a family estate for contribution costs related to PCE contamination at a shopping center. The claims against the estate were timely. But because the decedent's involvement in the PCE contamination, investigation, and remediation of the shopping center was limited to his role as co-trustee of the group that owned the shopping center, he is not personally liable for recovery costs under CERCLA. The complaint failed to plausibly allege that any of the exceptions to CERCLA's fiduciary exemption apply. Accordingly, the decedent's personal assets cannot be reached through the estate.