Lexis Legal News : Mealey's Pollution Liability : Lawsuit Filings, Litigation, Settlements, Verdicts and Court News

Mealey's Pollution Liability

January 4, 2019
Judge Approves $2.7M Settlement Over Train Derailment, Oil Spill

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia on Jan. 3 approved a settlement that requires CSX Transportation Inc. to pay $2.2 million in civil penalties for violating the Clean Water Act and spend $500,000 on a supplemental environmental project to resolve an action over a February 2015 incident that involved the derailment of 27 railcars, some of which were carrying Bakken crude oil that spilled into the Kanawha River and Armstrong Creek (United States, et al. v. CXS Transportation Inc., No. 18-cv-01175, S.D. W.Va., 2019 U.S. Dist. 798).
January 4, 2019
Insurer Has No Duty To Defend, Indemnify Insured For Contamination Claims

INDIANAPOLIS — An insurer has no duty to defend or indemnify its insured against claims arising out of environmental contamination because the contamination at issue was not caused by insured operations, the Indiana Court of Appeals said Dec. 20 in affirming summary judgment in favor of the insurer (City of Gary, Ind., et al. v. Auto-Owners Insurance Co., No. 18A-CT-68, Ind. App., 2018 Ind. App. LEXIS 485).
January 3, 2019
Magistrate Judge Says Group, City Can Intervene In Clean Water Act Suit

HAMMOND, Ind. — A federal judge in Indiana on Dec. 13 found that allowing the city of Chicago and the Surfrider Foundation to intervene in a Clean Water Act (CWA) suit brought by the state of Indiana and federal government against U.S. Steel was appropriate because their participation in the suit during the public comment period of a proposed consent decree would not “unnecessarily complicate” the action (United States v. United States Steel Corp., No. 18-cv-127-JEM, N.D. Ind., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210213).
December 21, 2018
Judge Denies Parties’ Summary Judgment Motions In Suit Over Permit Compliance

GULFPORT, Miss. — A federal judge in Louisiana on Dec. 13 denied motions for summary judgment filed by an environmental group and a construction company accused of discharging amounts of storm water that exceeded the limits of a permit issued under the Clean Water Act (CWA), finding that neither party presented sufficient evidence to warrant granting the motions (Gulf Restoration Network v. Oscar Renda Contracting Inc., No. 17cv130-LG-RHW, S.D. Miss., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210073).
December 19, 2018
Divided 5th Circuit Vacates Shrimping Company’s $2.5M Oil Spill Award

NEW ORLEANS — A 2-1 panel of the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said in a Nov. 9 ruling released Dec. 9 that an appeals panel of the Court Supervised Settlement Program (CSSP) for the Deepwater Horizon Economic and Property Damages Class Action Settlement Agreement erred when awarding a shrimping company $2.5 million for its claim because it erred when classifying shipping materials, labels and carbon dioxide as fixed costs (BP Exploration & Production Inc., et al. v. Claimant ID 100094497, No. 17-30949, 5th Cir., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34672).
December 18, 2018
2nd Circuit Revives Sierra Club’s Clean Water Act Suit Against Debris Recycler

NEW YORK— A company that recycles and sells construction debris and waste is involved in an industrial activity that is subject to the Clean Water Act, a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Dec. 17 after finding that a federal magistrate judge in New York erred when concluding that the company does not engage in activity covered by the statute (Sierra Club v. Con-Strux LLC, No. 18-257-cv, 2nd Cir., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 35280).
December 18, 2018
Judge Refuses To Limit, Exclude Experts’ Testimony In Clean Water Act Suit

GULFPORT, Miss. — A federal judge in Mississippi on Dec. 13 denied motions filed by parties in a Clean Water Act (CWA) lawsuit seeking to limit or exclude the testimony of three experts, finding that the challenges went to the weight of the experts’ opinions that can be raised during cross-examination (Gulf Restoration Network v. Oscar Renda Contracting Inc., No. 17cv130-LG-RHW, S.D. Miss., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 210075).
December 17, 2018
No Coverage Owed For Environmental Cleanup Costs, Federal Judge Says

SEATTLE — An insured is not entitled to coverage for environmental contamination cleanup costs because no suit has been filed against the insured as required by the policies at issue, a Washington federal judge said Dec. 14 in granting the insurers’ motion for summary judgment (Continental Casualty Co., et al. v. C.D. Stimson Co., No. 17-235, W.D. Wash., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 211245).
December 17, 2018
5th Circuit Affirms Judge’s Decision To Not Review Oil Spill Claims Award

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 13 upheld a federal judge in Louisiana’s decision to not review a Court Supervised Settlement Program (CSSP) appeals panel’s ruling that a dirt work services business was entitled to only $57,394 in compensation for business losses stemming from the oil spill that followed the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, holding that question of whether the claims administrator properly applied the terms of the settlement program was not before the court (Claimant ID 100196090 v. BP Exploration & Production Inc., et al., No. 18-30137, 5th Cir., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 35106).
December 10, 2018
Site Investigation Costs Should Be Classified As Defense Costs, Insured Says

SEATTLE — Environmental liability investigation costs incurred by an insured as a result of an agreement with the Washington Department of Ecology should be classified as defense costs and not as damages under an insurer’s policies, the insured argues in a Dec. 3 brief filed in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals (The Travelers Indemnity Co. v. Richland, Nos. 18-35543, 18-35558, 9th Cir.).
December 6, 2018
Pipeline Opponents Now Battling Bid To Continue Preconstruction Work

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A Montana federal judge should reject a request by the Keystone XL pipeline developers to amend his order shutting down the project to allow them to continue preconstruction activities because they would cause harm and affect the court-directed federal review process, a Native American group and environmentalists told the judge Dec. 5 (Indigenous Environmental Network, et al. v. U.S. Department of State, et al., No. 4:17-cv-29, D. Mont.).
December 6, 2018
Judge: Challenges To Expert Opinions On PCB Contamination Should Wait For Trial

CONCORD, N.H. — A federal judge in New Hampshire on Dec. 4 denied without prejudice competing motions to exclude expert testimony on the source of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) at a property pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 702 and Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., finding that the admissibility of the testimony should be determined at trial (Mareld Co. Inc. v. New England Telephone & Telegraph Co., No. 16-cv-390-PB, D. N.H., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 204909).
December 6, 2018
Judge: Parties’ Contract Claims Over Liability For Cleanup Premature

HANNIBAL, Mo. — A federal judge in Missouri on Nov. 16 denied competing motions for summary judgment filed by the seller of a site that was contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE) and the buyer of the property, finding that their breach of contract claims were not ripe for adjudication because the seller’s insurance company has yet to decide if it will cover the costs incurred in remediating the property (Cooper Industries LLC v. Spectrum Brands Inc., No. 16 CV 39 CDP, E.D. Mo., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 195715).
December 6, 2018
Claimant Unable To Show Property In Spill Recovery Zone, 5th Circuit Says

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 5 affirmed a federal judge in Louisiana’s refusal to review the denial of a claimant’s request for damages under the Deepwater Horizon Economic Property Damages Settlement program, finding that a map submitted by the claimant to show that it is an area subject to compensation was for informational purposes only (Claimant ID 100299837 v. BP Exploration & Production Inc., et al., No. 18-30684, 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 34287).
December 5, 2018
Judge Dismisses Man’s Suit Over Alleged Invention To Limit Oil Spill’s Spread

NEW ORLEANS — A federal judge in Louisiana on Nov. 30 dismissed a man’s lawsuit claiming that BP Exploration & Production Inc., BP America Production Co. and CB&I Group Inc. were unjustly enriched by their use of his invention to prevent the flow of oil from the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico into marshes, explaining that the plaintiff did not sufficiently describe the device he invented (Barry J. Badeaux v. BP Exploration & Production Inc., et al., No. 18-6606, E.D. La., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 203223).
December 4, 2018
11th Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Suit Against Government, Cleanup Contractors

ATLANTA — An 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 30 affirmed the dismissal of a Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) suit brought against two government contractors and the United States, holding that the claims against the contractors were barred by the doctrine of res judicata and that the FTCA’s discretionary function exception applied to a property owner’s claim against United States (Gadsden Industrial Park LLC v. United States, et al., No. 17-15325, 11th Cir., 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 33656).
December 3, 2018
U.S. High Court Invites Solicitor General To File Brief In Groundwater Case

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 3 invited the U.S. solicitor general to file a brief in a groundwater contamination lawsuit in which a pipeline company argues that a lower court wrongly ruled that the Clean Water Act (CWA) applies not only to the discharge of pollutants into navigable water but also to the discharge of pollutants into soil and groundwater. The court has not yet granted certiorari (Kinder Morgan Energy, et al. v. Upstate Forever, et al., No. 18-268, U.S. Sup.).
November 30, 2018
United States, Departments Did Not Operate Contaminated Site, Judge Rules

NEWARK, N.J. — A federal judge in New Jersey on Nov. 28 awarded summary judgment to the United States, as well as the U.S. Department of Defense and U.S. Department of Commerce, finding that the defendants cannot be held liable for response costs for the cleanup of a site because they were not arrangers or operators of the facility under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) (PPG Industries Inc. v. United States, et al., No. 12-3526, D. N.J., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 199930).
November 30, 2018
Split Arizona High Court Rejects Tribe’s Nuisance Suit Over Wastewater Snow

PHOENIX — Having snow made with treated sewage water cover sacred Indian ground is not the kind of “special injury” required for a Native American tribe to maintain a public nuisance suit against a ski resort and city, the Arizona Supreme Court held Nov. 29 (Hopi Tribe v. Arizona Snowbowl Resort Limited Partnership, et al., No. CV-18-0057, Ariz. Sup.).
November 30, 2018
Utility Company Seeks Costs Following Circuit Court’s Refusal To Rehear Case

NORFOLK, Va. — An electric utility company on Nov. 13 filed a brief in Virginia federal court arguing that it is entitled to an award of costs following a decision by a federal appellate court that denied an environmental group’s petition for rehearing en banc in a groundwater contamination case that was based on an allegation that the company had violated the conditions of its discharge permit (Sierra Club v. Virginia Electric & Power Company f/k/a Dominion Virginia Power, No. 15-112, E.D. Va.).