Metal Processing Co. v. Amoco Oil Co.

173 F.R.D. 244, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7252, 1997 WL 272266
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Wisconsin
DecidedMay 21, 1997
DocketNo. 95-C-1056
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 173 F.R.D. 244 (Metal Processing Co. v. Amoco Oil Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Metal Processing Co. v. Amoco Oil Co., 173 F.R.D. 244, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7252, 1997 WL 272266 (E.D. Wis. 1997).

Opinion

DECISION AND ORDER

GORDON, Senior District Judge.

Metal Processing Company, Inc. brought the above-captioned action on October 18, 1995, pursuing claims against Amoco Oil Company under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 [“CERCLA”], 42 U.S.C. § 9601-9675 and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act [“RCRA”], 42 U.S.C. § 6972 et seq. The trial in this case is scheduled to commence on June 9, 1997.

In 1967, Metal Processing purchased from Amoco property located at 32nd Street and Auer Avenue in Milwaukee. The plaintiff now seeks to recover from Amoco the costs the plaintiff has incurred in responding to hazardous substances found on the property, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 9607, and also to receive contribution for the future response costs that the plaintiff has yet to incur, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 9613. Furthermore, Metal Processing asks that Amoco be held liable, under 42 U.S.C. § 6972, as a past generator and owner of a facility that contributed to the disposal of waste that presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to health or the environment. There are several pending motions before the court.

I. Defendant’s Motion to Strike Plaintiffs Demand for a Jury Trial

In both its complaint and its amended complaint, Metal Processing demanded a jury trial. Amoco now moves to strike that demand, arguing that Metal Processing has no right to a jury trial in an environmental recovery case, which, the defendant argues, is essentially equitable in nature.

The Seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that the right to a jury trial shall be preserved in suits at common law. The Supreme Court of the United States has interpreted the amendment to guarantee a jury trial in actions that are analogous to cases that, prior to the enactment of the Seventh Amendment in 1791, would have been brought in courts of law, rather than courts of equity or admiralty:

To determine whether a statutory action is more similar to cases that were tried in courts of law than to suits tried in courts of equity or admiralty, the court must examine both the nature of the action and of the remedy sought. First we compare the statutory action to 18th-century actions brought in the courts of England prior to the merger of the courts of law and equi-ty____ Second, we examine the remedy sought and determine whether it is legal or equitable in nature.

Tull v. United States, 481 U.S. 412, 417-18, 107 S.Ct. 1831, 1835, 95 L.Ed.2d 365 (1987); see also In re Air Crash Disaster Near Roselawn, Ind., 96 F.3d 932, 943 (7th Cir.1996) (“To discern whether the amendment applies, we pose what is called the ‘historical’ test: was the cause of action, or at least an analogous action, tried at law at the time of the Founding?”).

Very few courts have had an opportunity to decide whether there exists.a right to a jury trial under 42 U.S.C. § § 9607 & 9613 (CERCLA) and 42 U.S.C. § 6972 (RCRA), but the courts that have resolved the issue [246]*246have almost uniformly found that there is no such right. The court of appeals for the third circuit, in a case relied upon by Amoco, used historical analysis when it found that there is no right to a jury trial under CERCLA. Hatco Corp. v. W.R. Grace & Co. Conn., 59 F.3d 400 (3d Cir.1995). The Hatco court first found that the plaintiffs claim under 42 U.S.C. § 9607, which allows for the recovery of past expenses from previous owners or operators of a facility, was one for restitution. The court said that restitution is “based on substantive liability having its origins in unjust enrichment or the restoration to a party in kind of his lost property or its proceeds.” Hatco, 59 F.3d at 412. The court commented that no appellate court had decided that a right to a jury trial exists for contribution claims arising under 42 U.S.C. § 9613 and, after finding nothing in the legislative history allowing a right to a jury and after engaging in a historical analysis, concluded that contribution was an equitable remedy. Hatco, 59 F.3d at 412-13.

Similarly, the court of appeals for the eighth circuit held that when the federal government was seeking recovery of its response costs pursuant CERCLA or of its abatement costs under RCRA, the government was “in effect seeking equitable relief in the form of restitution or reimbursement of the costs it expended in order to respond to the health and environmental danger presented by hazardous substances,” and that there was no right to a jury trial. United States v. Northeastern Pharm. & Chem. Co., 810 F.2d 726, 749 (8th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 848, 108 S.Ct. 146, 98 L.Ed.2d 102 (1987).

A federal district court, when recently analyzing whether the parties were entitled to a jury on a claim for contribution under 42 U.S.C. § 9613, analogized the contribution claim to a claim for recovery of response costs under § 9607. American Cyanamid Co. v. King Industries, Inc., 814 F.Supp. 209, 213-14 (D.R.I.1993). Finding that courts have “uniformly held” that there is no right to a jury trial in § 9607 actions, the district court said:

The underlying issues to be tried are whether the defendants are liable for response costs ..., and to what extent, if any they are liable for their share of those costs to the plaintiffs. Logically, plaintiffs’ right to recovery derives directly from the state and federal government’s equitable right to hold defendants liable for response costs and to seek restitution. These issues of response cost liability and apportionment of restitutionary relief are equitable in nature, and do not entitle defendants to a trial by jury.

American Cyanamid, 814 F.Supp. at 214.

My research shows that only one court within our judicial circuit has addressed the issue. Citing the “numerous cases” that support the preposition that recovery of response costs under CERCLA is “equitable in nature as a consequence of which there is no entitlement to a jury,” the district court for the southern district of Indiana found “no reason to deviate from the line of authority,” and struck the plaintiff’s demand for a jury trial for its § 9607 claim. GL Indus. of Michigan v. Forstmann-Little, 800 F.Supp. 695, 698-99 (S.D.Ind.1991). Several other federal district courts have reached the same result. See Dublin Scarboro Improvement Assn. v. Harford County, 678 F.Supp.

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Bluebook (online)
173 F.R.D. 244, 1997 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7252, 1997 WL 272266, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metal-processing-co-v-amoco-oil-co-wied-1997.