LCCS Grp. v. A.N. Webber Logistics, Inc.

341 F. Supp. 3d 847
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedSeptember 19, 2018
DocketCase No. 16 C 5827
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 341 F. Supp. 3d 847 (LCCS Grp. v. A.N. Webber Logistics, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LCCS Grp. v. A.N. Webber Logistics, Inc., 341 F. Supp. 3d 847 (illinoised 2018).

Opinion

Harry D. Leinenweber, Judge

Defendants Interplastic Corporation and Central Michigan Railway bring separate Motions for Summary Judgment. (Dtks. 305, 310.) Plaintiff Lake Calumet Cluster Site Group ("LCCS Group") cross-moves for summary judgment only as to liability and only against Interplastic. (Dkt. 309.) For the reasons stated herein, all three Motions are denied.

I. BACKGROUND

LCCS Group is a legal entity comprising signatories to an agreement with the United States Environment Protection Agency (the "EPA"). (Pl.'s Resp. to Interplastic's Statement of Facts ("Interplastic SOF") ¶ 1, Dkt. 313-1.) Said agreement obligates the LCCS Group to pay the remediation costs to clean up a Superfund site referred *850to as the Lake Calumet Cluster Site ("the Cluster Site"). (Id. ¶¶ 2-4.) Eager to reduce the apportionment of liability for that cleanup among its members, the LCCS Group seeks in this suit to add additional parties to its number, including Interplastic and Central Michigan. (See generally Compl., Dkt. 1.) In this vein, the LCCS Group seeks those parties' contribution under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(3)-(4), and declaratory judgment as to the liability of those parties, see 42 U.S.C. § 9613(g)(2). (Compl. ¶¶ 482-507.)

A. Interplastic Corporation.

Interplastic's role in this case arose from a single delivery to the Cluster Site: an August 6, 1979, load of fifty drums of "waste resin" shipped from Interplastic's facility in Minneapolis. (Interplastic SOF ¶¶ 25-28.) The exact components of that resin are unknown, but the only resins Interplastic produced at that time were unsaturated polyester resins ("UPRs"). (Id. ¶ 10.) All of the UPRs Interplastic produced during the relevant time period contained anhydride and styrene as raw materials. (Id. ¶ 11.) Some of those UPRs also included as raw materials one or more of the following: adipic acid, diethylene glycol, ethylene glycol, fumaric acid, methyl methacrylate, and phthalic anhydride. (Id. ¶ 12.) In their raw forms, each of those materials appears on the EPA's "List of Lists," a non-exclusive enumeration of substances deemed "hazardous" for the purposes of determining CERCLA liability. (Id. ¶ 13.)

All UPRs are thermoset polymers. (Id. ¶ 17.) Thermoset polymers are designed to undergo a chemical reaction known as curing which transforms the polymers (presumably originally in a liquid state) into solids. (Id. ¶ 18.) Interplastic maintains that once thermoset polymers solidify, they cannot break down into their constituent parts. (Id. ¶ 18.) Plaintiff at once seems to admit to this fact (see id. (objecting not to the content of Interplastic's claim of irreversibility but merely to the claim's materiality ) ) and also dispute it (see id. ¶ 17 (contending that Interplastic's assertions as to the irreversibility of polymerization do not account for intervening forces which could effect a breakdown of the UPRs at the Cluster Site) ). To any extent, Interplastic also contends that all UPRs inevitably cure into solids; Plaintiff dispute this as well. (Id. ¶ 20.)

Interplastic sold the UPRs it produced in liquid form - the form usable to the customer. (Id. ¶ 19.) To enhance the viability of its product, Interplastic added inhibitors to the UPRs it distributed to delay their solidification and extend their shelf life. (Id. ) But when Interplastic's manufacturing process went awry, resulting in unusable "waste resin," Interplastic added a "significantly lower" volume of inhibitors to the batch, recognizing it was unsuitable for sale. (Id. ¶ 20.) Interplastic treated its waste resin on-site in Minneapolis by placing it in a "hot box" and polymerizing it, causing the waste resin to solidify. (Id. ¶ 24.) On rare occasion, the waste resin would not fully cure even after "hot box" treatment. (Id. ¶ 16.) In such instances, Interplastic contracted to have that resin transported for off-site disposal. (Id. ) The fifty barrels of waste resin delivered to the Cluster Site in 1979 appear to have been the object of such an arrangement. (See Interplastic's Resp. to Pl.'s Facts ¶ 15, Dkt. 316; LCCS Interplastic Site Records, Ex. D to Pl.'s Mot. for Summ. J., Dkt. 309-8.) Though the parties dispute whether Interplastic manufactured the waste resin contained in those barrels, the uncontested documentation indicates that the barrels originated with Interplastic. (See Dkt. 309-8.)

*851B. Central Michigan Railway.

Central Michigan is the corporate successor to Lakeshore Terminal & Pipeline Company, which Plaintiff contends arranged for a third-party entity called Inland Waters to deliver 2,800 gallons of flammable jet fuel waste from Lakeshore to the Cluster Site on June 24, 1982. (Pl.'s Resp. to Cent. Mich.'s Statement of Facts ("Mich. SOF Resp.") ¶ 5, Dkt. 314-1; Cent. Mich.'s Reply to Pl.'s Statement of Additional Facts ("Mich. SOF Reply") ¶¶ 2-3, Dkt. 323-2.) The waste disposal manifest describing that shipment lists Lakeshore as the waste's "generator." (Manifest, Ex. F to Cent. Mich.'s Mem. in Supp. of Summ. J., Dkt. 306-1.) Central Michigan concedes that it stored that jet fuel waste in a tank on its premises yet maintains it neither owned the fuel nor arranged for its disposal. (Mich. SOF Resp. ¶¶ 6-8.) Rather, according to Central Michigan, the U.S. Department of Defense owned that fuel, Central Michigan merely stored it on DOD's behalf, and it was DOD that contracted with Inland Waters for the fuel waste's removal to the Cluster Site. (Id. ¶¶ 6-10.)

II. DISCUSSION

Summary judgment must be granted "if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." FED. R. CIV. P. 56(a). A genuine issue of material fact exists if "the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party." Zaya v. Sood , 836 F.3d 800, 804 (7th Cir. 2016) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. , 477 U.S. 242

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341 F. Supp. 3d 847, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lccs-grp-v-an-webber-logistics-inc-illinoised-2018.