U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court to Decide Superfund Liability for Landlord, Chemical Maker
Posted Oct 1, 2008, 09:46 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a chemical maker and a landlord are responsible for cleanup costs of a site contaminated by a company that leased the land.
The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled Shell Oil Co. was liable for making and delivering the chemicals and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. was responsible as owner of the site, Dow Jones reports.
The Environmental Protection Agency had sued the companies under the federal Superfund law along with the now-defunct chemical distributor accused of contaminating the site. The Superfund law imposes cleanup costs on companies that “arranged for disposal'' of hazardous substances, Bloomberg reports.
Shell contends it is being held liable for the mere sale of a useful product, while the government contends it was deeply involved in delivering the chemicals to the site.
The cases are Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway Co. v. U.S., and Shell Oil Co. v. U.S.
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