A district court held that an insurance company must defend and indemnify a manufacturing company for its costs responding to contamination at a landfill. The insurer argued that the policy's pollution exclusion clause barred coverage because the company intentionally discharged its waste into the l...

A district court held that CERCLA §113(f)(2) does not afford the U.S. government protection from contribution claims brought by a third-party PRP in a case involving cleanup costs incurred at the Quehanna Wild Area Nuclear Site in Pennsylvania. The U.S. government entered into a settlement agreemen...

A district court held that a corporation may be held liable under CERCLA for contamination stemming from smelting operations in the early 1900s by a subsidiary of the corporation's predecessor. Considering the totality of the circumstances, the smelting company was the alter ego of the corporation's...

The Sixth Circuit held that the three-year statute of limitations for contribution actions brought after an administrative settlement to perform a removal action begins running when the settlement becomes effective, not when the removal action is completed. In this case, the plaintiff—a group of P...

The Fifth Circuit held that a corporation should not be held liable as an arranger under CERCLA for costs associated with cleaning up a plume of perchloroethylene (PERC) that discharged from a dry cleaning business that operated in the 1960s and 1970s. A district court in 2006 had held the corporati...

A district court granted in part and denied in part a motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit against a Canadian mining company for allegedly causing individuals residing near the Upper Columbia River to suffer various health diseases due to toxic and hazardous air emissions from the company's smel...

The Second Circuit vacated individuals' convictions for making false statements and conspiring to violate CERCLA. The jury instructions stated that because the defendant has an interest in the outcome of the trial, he has a motive to testify falsely and that the jury should bear this in mind when ev...

A district court granted in part and denied in part motions to dismiss property owners' CERCLA contribution claims against a company for contamination stemming from a manufactured gas plant that the company's predecessor operated from the 1830s until the early 1900s. In 2010, some of the property ow...

A district court approved a $5.15 billion settlement agreement—the largest such recovery in American history—resolving two lawsuits in which a spin-off company and the U.S. government asserted fraudulent transfer and other claims against an energy company and its parent. In 2006, the energy comp...

A district court, on motions for partial summary judgment, dismissed a property owner's CERCLA claims against a lessee who subleased the property to a dry cleaner, who then allowed perchloroethylene to be released into groundwater. The owner sought contribution from the lessee for past and future en...