EI DuPont De Nemours and Co. v. United States

508 F.3d 126, 37 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20286, 65 ERC (BNA) 1577, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 26799, 2007 WL 4105651
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedNovember 20, 2007
Docket04-2096
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 508 F.3d 126 (EI DuPont De Nemours and Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
EI DuPont De Nemours and Co. v. United States, 508 F.3d 126, 37 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20286, 65 ERC (BNA) 1577, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 26799, 2007 WL 4105651 (3d Cir. 2007).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

SLOVITER, Circuit Judge.

This matter is before us on the order of the Supreme Court of the United States dated June 18, 2007, which granted the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by DuPont, vacated the judgment of this court, and remanded for further consideration in light of its opinion in United States v. Atlantic Research Corp., 551 U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2331, 168 L.Ed.2d 28 (2007). In our earlier opinion, a majority of this court held that DuPont could not pursue an action under CERCLA to recover from the United States a portion of its cleanup costs. The dissent would have held that DuPont could maintain an action for cost recovery under § 107 of CERCLA. In light of the Supreme Court’s order, we return to the issue presented.

I.

Introduction

Appellants E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., ConocoPhillips Co., and Sporting Goods Properties, Inc. (collectively “DuPont” or “appellants”) own and operate industrial facilities throughout the United States that are contaminated with hazardous waste. DuPont admits that it contami *128 nated those sites, but alleges that the United States also contaminated parts of the sites. After DuPont voluntarily cleaned up a site jointly polluted by both DuPont and the government, DuPont filed this suit under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq., seeking an order requiring the government to reimburse it for a share of the cleanup costs. The District Court granted the motion of the United States for summary judgment. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. v. United States, 297 F.Supp.2d 740 (D.N.J.2003). The District Court thereafter entered judgment on the pleadings for the United States with respect to the remaining sites. E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., No. 97-497, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 30498, at *2 (D.N.J. Mar. 1, 2004). This court affirmed.

In the opinion accompanying the now-vacated judgment, we held that two of our precedents — New Castle County v. Halliburton NUS Corp., 111 F.3d 1116 (3d Cir.1997), and Matter of Reading Co., 115 F.3d 1111 (3d Cir.1997)— precluded DuPont’s claims. See E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. v. United States, 460 F.3d 515, 518 (3d Cir.2006). We read our opinion in New Castle County as barring potentially responsible parties from pursuing a cost recovery action under CERCLA § 107(a), 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a), thereby limiting potentially responsible parties to an express cause of action for contribution under CERCLA § 113, 42 U.S.C. § 9613. 1 Id. In our opinion in Reading, which was decided a few weeks after New Castle County, we held that the statutory remedy in § 113 was the exclusive remedy for potentially responsible parties seeking contribution, thereby replacing any judicially created implied cause of action for contribution under § 107. Id. We held that because the Supreme Court’s decision in Cooper Industries, Inc. v. Aviall Services, Inc., 543 U.S. 157, 125 S.Ct. 577, 160 L.Ed.2d 548 (2004), limited use of § 113 to parties that cleaned up contaminated sites pursuant to an order adjudging them liable or who settled such an action, DuPont, which had cleaned up voluntarily, had no viable claim. Id.

Subsequently, the Supreme Court decided United States v. Atlantic Research Corp., 551 U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 2331, 168 L.Ed.2d 28 (2007), holding that a private party may recover under § 107 voluntarily incurred cleanup costs from another party, including the government, without any establishment of liability to a third party. It is apparent that Atlantic Research Corp. impels us to reconsider our precedents.

II.

Statutory Framework

The apportionment of cleanup costs among the entities generally referred to as potentially responsible parties (“PRPs”) 2 is set forth in the applicable provisions of CERCLA. Congress enacted CERCLA in 1980 to address the “serious environmental and health risks posed by pollution.” *129 United States v. Bestfoods, 524 U.S. 51, 55, 118 S.Ct. 1876, 141 L.Ed.2d 43 (1998). CERCLA has two principal purposes. See Morton Int’l, Inc. v. A.E. Staley Mfg. Co., 343 F.3d 669, 676 (3d Cir.2003). First, CERCLA is a remedial statute that “grants the President broad power to command government agencies and private parties to clean up hazardous waste sites.” Key Tronic Corp. v. United States, 511 U.S. 809, 814, 114 S.Ct. 1960, 128 L.Ed.2d 797 (1994). Second, the statute requires “everyone who is potentially responsible for hazardous-waste contamination ... to contribute to the costs of cleanup.” Bestfoods, 524 U.S. at 56 n. 1, 118 S.Ct. 1876 (emphasis and internal quotation marks omitted).

Several sections of CERCLA are relevant to our discussion.

A. Sections 106 and 107

CERCLA § 106(a) provides that the United States may act to “secure such relief as may be necessary to abate” a “substantial endangerment to the public health or welfare or the environment because of an actual or threatened release of a hazardous substance from a facility.” 42 U.S.C. § 9606(a). CERCLA § 107(a)(1)-(4) defines “covered persons,” that is, the class of persons responsible for the costs incurred pursuant to § 106 or other sections, as follows:

(1) the owner and operator of a vessel or a facility,
(2) any person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance owned or operated any facility at which such hazardous substances were disposed of,
(3) any person who by contract, agreement, or otherwise arranged for disposal or treatment, or arranged with a transporter for transport for disposal or treatment, of hazardous substances owned or possessed by such person, by any other party or entity, at any facility or incineration vessel owned or operated by another party or entity and containing such hazardous substances, and

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508 F.3d 126, 37 Envtl. L. Rep. (Envtl. Law Inst.) 20286, 65 ERC (BNA) 1577, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 26799, 2007 WL 4105651, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ei-dupont-de-nemours-and-co-v-united-states-ca3-2007.