ELR Citation: ELR 20542
(N.Y. Oct 19, 1989)

The court holds that a New York Supreme Court properly exercised its equitable authority in requiring polluting landfill owners, who knowingly failed to comply with state regulations and court directives, to post bond to ensure that taxpayers would not bear the cost of cleaning up an illegal landfill. Defendants, owners of a tract of land and a transport service, deposited construction and demolition debris on the tract of land in order to raise the land to the level of a nearby roadway to increase the value of the property. New York's Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) notified defendants that this activity required a permit, but defendants continued to dump debris at the site in the face of numerous warnings that continued activity might subject them to financial sanctions. Defendants subsequently failed to comply with a temporary restraining order and post bond. The court holds that the $4.5 million bond was properly granted after 12 days of hearings during which the landfill owners failed to sufficiently rebut evidence of their indifference to numerous DEC warnings, their violation of the temporary restraining order, their subsequent use of industrial waste as landfill cover in direct violation of the interim court order, and their "stonewalling" of the investigation. The court holds that the bond was not improvidently or abusively granted under these circumstances, considering that the owners would ultimately be responsible under state law for the cleanup expenses. The court's power to fashion equitable relief to enforce its rules and regulations should be flexible.

Counsel for Appellants
Allen H. Weiss, Benjamin Shedler
56 Pine St., 9th Fl., New York NY 12005
(212) 785-1340

Counsel for Respondents
Robert Abrams, Attorney General; John G. Proudfit
New York State Department of Law
120 Broadway, New York NY 10271
(212) 341-2000

WACHTLER, C.J., and SIMONS, KAYE, ALEXANDER, TITONE, and HANCOCK, JJ., concur.