RULING SUGGESTS LIMITS TO HIGH COURT SUPERFUND LIABILITY DECISION

摘要

A recent ruling by a state court in Montana suggests there may be some limits to the constraints a recent Supreme Court ruling has placed on government regulators seeking to hold polluters liable for the cost of Superfund cleanups, a lawyer following the issue says.rnIn the case State of Montana v. Burlington Northern & Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway Co., et al., the Montana First Judicial District Court for Lewis and Clark County recently denied BNSF's motion to reconsider a prior ruling holding it jointly and severally liable for the cleanup of the Kalispell Pole and Timber facility site in Kalispell, MT, in light of the Supreme Court's May decision in the consolidated cases Shell Oil v. United States and BNSF Railway Co. v. United States.rnIn the Supreme Court ruling, the high court found that liability for contamination at a separate site in California could be apportioned, meaning BNSF, which was also involved in that case, would be liable for a portion of the contamination rather than being held jointly and severally liable for the entirety of the contamination.