Environmental litigation, particularly toxic tort litigation, inevitably turns on scientific evidence about causation. Beginning with the Supreme Court’s Daubert decision in 1993, trial courts have repeatedly been admonished...more
5/21/2013
- Causation Daubert Hearing Expert Testimony
A few months ago, I blogged on the decision in Duke Energy Progress Inc. v. Alcan Aluminum Corporation where a court held that a company would not be held liable for selling used transformers to a recycling facility for...more
5/14/2013
- Hazardous Substances Recycling Superfund
In a post last year, I discussed what I I thought was the dubious dismissal of a CERCLA cost recovery action in Stratford Holding, LLC v. Fog Cap Retail Investors LLC. ...more
4/24/2013
- CERCLA
In a decision that exalts casuistry over common sense, the Ninth Circuit recently held that an insurer who reimbursed $2.4 million in CERCLA response costs to its policyholder had no subrogation rights against the potentially...more
3/20/2013
- CERCLA Contamination Insurers Subrogation
Burlington Northern squarely decided that where environmental harm is divisible, an individual PRP can obtain apportionment of its liability and be assigned a specific percentage share; in such instances, there will be no...more
12/3/2012
- CERCLA Superfund
Remedy decisions are almost always won or lost at the agency level. Once the ROD issues, a PRP’s chance of having the selected remedy overturned in court is slim to none – a point that was driven home in a recent decision in...more
11/30/2012
- Superfund
Over a decade after it was issued, Aviall continues to cause difficulties for private settling parties in CERCLA. In Lewis v. Russell, a federal district court recently considered whether a PRP which agreed to a cash payment...more
11/20/2012
