AMW Materials Testing, Inc. v. Town of Babylon

187 F. App'x 24
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 28, 2006
DocketNo. 05-0206-cv
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 187 F. App'x 24 (AMW Materials Testing, Inc. v. Town of Babylon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
AMW Materials Testing, Inc. v. Town of Babylon, 187 F. App'x 24 (2d Cir. 2006).

Opinion

SUMMARY ORDER

Plaintiffs-counter-defendants-appellants AMW Materials Testing, Inc. (“AMW”) and Anthony Antoniou (“Antoniou”), collectively (“plaintiffs”), appeal from a December 20, 2004, order and December 23, 2004, judgment of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Spatt, J.) granting summary judgment in favor of the Town of Babylon (“Town”) and the North Amityville Fire Company, Inc. (“Fire Department”), collectively (“defendants”), and dismissing plaintiffs’ complaint. We assume the parties’ familiarity with the facts, procedural history, and specification of issues on appeal.

This action arose from a fire that erupted at AMW’s place of business located in the Town. Plaintiffs claim that improper methods were employed by the Fire Department to extinguish the fire, which caused violent reactions with chemicals located on the premises and spread the fire. Plaintiffs brought federal claims against defendants under Sections 113(f)(1), 42 U.S.C. § 9613(f)(1), and 107(a), 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a), of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”). They also brought state claims for negligence and violations of New York Navigation Law. The district court dismissed all claims on summary judgment. We affirm the dismissal of the Section 113(f)(1) claim and vacate the dismissal of the Section 107(a) claim, the state negligence claim, and the New York Navigation Law claim. We address each of these claims in turn, reviewing the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo. See Trans Sport, Inc. v. Starter Sportswear, Inc., 964 F.2d 186, 188 (2d Cir.1992).

(1) We affirm the district court’s grant of summary judgment on plaintiffs’ Section 113(f)(1), 42 U.S.C. § 9613(f)(1) claim. The Supreme Court has held that “contribution [under Section 113(f)(1) ] may only be sought subject to specified conditions, namely, ‘during or following’ a specified civil action.” Cooper Indus. v. Aviall Servs., Inc., 543 U.S. 157, 125 S.Ct. 577, 583, 160 L.Ed.2d 548 (2004). Although plaintiffs are correct that the Court left open whether a Section 106 abatement order qualifies as a “civil action” within the meaning of this statute, see Cooper Indus., 125 S.Ct. at 584 n. 5., they have failed to show that such an order was issued in the instant case. Because plaintiffs failed to satisfy the statutory requirements for bringing a claim of contribution under Section 113(f)(1), we affirm the grant of summary judgment in this respect.

(2) We vacate summary judgment and remand as to the Section 107(a) claim. The district court ruled on this claim without the benefit of recent precedent from this Circuit, which has created an issue of material fact rendering summary judgment improper in the instant case. That case, Consol. Edison Co. v. UGI Utils., Inc., 423 F.3d 90 (2d Cir.2005), makes [27]*27relevant to determine, inter alia, whether and to what extent plaintiffs incurred response costs voluntarily. Id. at 102. This is of course a question of fact appropriately addressed by the district court. See Peck v. Pub. Serv. Mut. Ins. Co., 326 F.3d 330, 338 (2d Cir.2003). We therefore vacate the district court’s grant of summary judgment on plaintiffs’ Section 107(a) claim so that this factual finding may be made, and if appropriate, the claim may proceed to trial. On remand, the court may also determine whether plaintiffs incurred “necessary costs of response” as required for recovery under Section 107(a), assuming it finds that in light of Consolidated Edison, this section applies. Consol. Edison Co., 423 F.3d at 99.

The district court also found that even if plaintiffs could bring suit under Section 107(a), they failed to make out a prima facie case under that section because defendants were not “operators” within the meaning of Section 107(a). It was incorrect to find that defendants were not operators as a matter of law. CERCLA does not contain a helpful definition for “operator,” but it has been defined through case law. See 42 U.S.C. § 9601(20)(A); United States v. Bestfoods, 524 U.S. 51, 65, 118 S.Ct. 1876, 141 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998). According to this case law, an “operator is simply someone who directs the workings of, manages, or conducts the affairs of a facility.” Bestfoods, 524 U.S. at 66, 118 S.Ct. 1876. This has been interpreted broadly. A person may be an “operator” “regardless of whether that person is ... even a saboteur who sneaks into the facility at night to discharge its poisons out of malice.” Id. at 65, 118 S.Ct. 1876. Giving plaintiffs the benefit of every inference, as we must on appeal from summary judgment, there remains a dispute of fact over whether the Town and Fire Department were “opera-torts]” while they were controlling the premises to extinguish the fire. The parties dispute how much control was exercised by defendants. They also dispute whether and to what extent hazardous substances were released under defendants’ alleged control, but these are issues appropriately addressed by the trier of fact.

Similarly, it was improper to find as a matter of law that defendants were statutorily immune from liability under 42 U.S.C. § 9607(d)(2). This immunity does not exist for gross negligence or willful misconduct, and, as discussed infra, it was inappropriate to find such culpability absent as a matter of law.

(3) For this reason, it was also improper to grant summary judgment on plaintiffs’ negligence claim. This is because the standard for granting summary judgment on this claim is quite high, King v. Crossland Sav. Bank, 111 F.3d 251, 259 (2d Cir.1997), and “[g]enerally, the particular standard of care which a defendant is judged against in a given case is a factual matter for the jury.” Food Pageant, Inc. v. Consol. Edison Co., 54 N.Y.2d 167, 172, 445 N.Y.S.2d 60, 429 N.E.2d 738 (N.Y.1981). This is true even when the standard is gross negligence, id. at 172-73, 445 N.Y.S.2d 60, 429 N.E.2d 738, and when a municipality has breached its special duty of care that arises during the course of administering emergency services, De Long v. County of Erie, 60 N.Y.2d 296, 305-06, 469 N.Y.S.2d 611, 457 N.E.2d 717 (N.Y.1983).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Robinson v. Ballard
N.D. New York, 2019
AMW Materials Testing, Inc. v. Town of Babylon
584 F.3d 436 (Second Circuit, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 F. App'x 24, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/amw-materials-testing-inc-v-town-of-babylon-ca2-2006.