
Subscribe for updates
Recent Posts
- Tenth Circuit Applies Statute of Limitations That Is “Closest Fit” in CERCLA Action, Overrules Earlier Precedent
- New Jersey Weighs in on State Climate Tort Claims
- First Circuit Holds that Smelling Vehicle Exhaust Constitutes Injury-in-Fact under Clean Air Act
- Ninth Circuit Upholds Vacatur of Some Oil and Gas Leases
- Court Dismisses Microplastics Consumer Protection Suit Citing Federal Preemption
Topics
- NJDEP
- Pollutants
- Connecticut
- Federal Land Policy and Management Act
- Council on Environmental Quality
- Agency Action
- Loper Bright
- Public Trust Doctrine
- New Jersey Civil Rights Act
- Environmental Justice
- Disparate Impact
- Title VI
- Massachusetts
- Internal Investigation
- Evidence
- Citizens Suit
- FIFRA
- Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act
- Georgia
- Major Questions Doctrine
- Lead Paint
- Greenwashing
- Good Faith Settlement
- Federal Facilities
- Statutory Notice
- Oil Pollution Act
- Federal Jurisdiction
- Owner Liability
- Court of Federal Claims
- Ripeness
- Renewable Fuel Standard
- Fish and Wildlife Service
- Greenhouse Gas
- Refinery
- Alaska
- Florida
- Solvents
- National Priorities List
- Vapor Intrusion
- Price-Anderson Act
- Solid Waste Management Act
- Personal Jurisdiction
- Successor Liability
- Operator Liability
- Potentially Responsible Parties
- Federal Circuit
- Environmental Covenants
- Apportionment
- Divisibility
- National Contingency Plan
- Strict Liability
- Water Pollution Control Act
- Utilities
- Public Utilities Commission
- Historic Resources
- Hydraulic Fracturing
- Water Use
- Ohio
- PFAS
- Arbitration
- Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Climate Change
- Auer Deference
- Fees
- Commonwealth Court
- West Virginia
- Forest Service
- TSCA
- Asbestos
- Martime
- Tribal Lands
- Gold King Mine
- Utah
- Federal Tort Claims Act
- New Mexico
- Delaware
- Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control
- FERC
- National Forest Management Act
- United States Supreme Court
- Chevron Deference
- Endangered Species Act
- HSCA
- Corporate Veil
- Alter Ego
- Allocation
- Eleventh Amendment
- Delaware River Basin Commission
- Mining
- Intervention
- New Hampshire
- Building Materials
- First Circuit
- Property Damage
- PCBs
- Groundwater
- Natural Resource Damages
- Brownfields
- Brownfield
- Innocent Party
- Environmental Rights Amendment
- PHMSA
- Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration
- FOIA
- Effluents
- Sediment Sites
- EHB
- Pipelines
- Texas
- Missouri
- Injunction
- Coal Ash
- Spoliation
- Stormwater
- TMDL
- Safe Drinking Water Act
- Colorado
- Michigan
- Drinking Water
- North Carolina
- Bankruptcy
- Clean Streams Law
- Civil Penalties
- Hearing Board
- Arranger Liability
- Sovereign Immunity
- Retroactive
- Damages
- Property Value
- Stigma
- Fair Market Value
- Tax assessment
- Storage Tank
- Indemnification
- Energy
- Fifth Circuit
- Electric
- Ninth Circuit
- Arizona
- Attorney-Client
- OPRA
- Iowa
- Discovery Rule
- Fourth Circuit
- Eighth Circuit
- Administrative Appeals
- Taxes
- Preemption
- CAFA
- Residential
- Inspection
- Freshwater Wetlands Protect Act
- New York
- Natural Gas Act
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
- Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
- D.C. Circuit
- Mercury
- Hazardous Air Pollutants
- HAPs
- Condemnation
- Takings
- Storage
- Natural Gas
- Takings Clause
- Flooding
- Fifth Amendment
- Spill Act
- Causation
- NEPA
- Interior
- Mineral Leasing Act
- Tenth Circuit
- California
- Act 13
- Zoning
- Insurance Coverage
- Duty to Defend
- Eminent Domain
- Landfill
- Private Right of Action
- Sixth Circuit
- Water
- Illinois
- Subject Matter Jurisdiction
- Citizen Suit
- Diligent Prosecution
- Arkansas
- Pennsylvania
- Press
- Uncategorized
- Maryland
- Eleventh Circuit
- Navigability
- Montana
- Equal-Footing Doctrine
- Riverbed
- Seventh Circuit
- Indiana
- Breach of Contract
- Public Lands
- Bona Fide Prospective Purchaser
- Green House Counsel
- Rulemaking
- Equity
- CISWI
- Consent Decree
- Enforcement
- EPA
- Laches
- Boiler MACT
- Delay Notice
- Declaratory Relief
- Second Circuit
- Contribution
- Procedure
- Standing
- NPDES
- Dimock
- Medical Monitoring
- Case Update
- Legislation
- Certification
- Contamination
- Louisiana
- Dukes
- CLE
- Decisions of Note
- Expert Witness
- Discovery
- Work Product
- Cases to Watch
- Privilege
- Defense Costs
- Cost Recovery
- CERCLA
- Insurance
- Real Estate
- Response Action Contractors
- Consultant Liability
- Negligence
- Remediation
- Donovan
- Army Corps
- Rapanos
- Class Actions
- Hog Barn
- Kentucky
- Trespass
- Farming
- Odors
- Nuisance
- New Jersey
- ISRA
- Informal Agency Action
- Administrative Hearing
- Waste
- Air
- Combustion
- RCRA
- Railroad
- Cancer
- Emissions
- Speaking Engagements
- Federal Procedure
- Third Circuit
- Toxic Torts
- Removal
- Permits
- Title V
- Clean Air Act
- Statute of Limitations
- Superfund
- Cleanup
- Supreme Court
- Tolling
- Camp Lejeune
- Statute of Repose
- Multi-District Litigation
- Mineral Rights
- Administrative Procedures Act
- Enforcement Action
- Marcellus Shale
- Due Process
- Deeds
- Clean Water Act
- Wetlands
- Exploration
- Royalties
- Drilling
- Oil and Gas
- Leases
Blog editor
Blog Contributors
Another opinion was issued yesterday in the Morristown Associates v. Grant Oil Co. case, Dkt. No. A-0313-11T3 (N.J. App. Div., Nov. 17, 2015), a case which became famous earlier this year when the New Jersey Supreme Court held that there is no statute of limitations for private-party contribution claims under the New Jersey Spill Act. After the case was remanded following the New Jersey Supreme Court’s decision, the Appellate Division had to address several issues that the parties had appealed, but were deemed moot when the Appellate Division previously dismissed the case on statute of limitations grounds.
Yesterday, in a per curiam opinion, the New Jersey Appellate Division reaffirmed that plaintiffs seeking to recover cleanup costs from other potentially responsible parties under the New Jersey Spill Act must establish a “reasonable nexus” or connection between each defendant’s actions that allegedly caused a discharge of a hazardous substance and the contamination that the plaintiff is addressing, reaffirming the 2012 New Jersey Supreme Court decision in NJDEP v. Dimant, 212 N.J. 153 (2012). The Dimant case injected a causation requirement that was not previously a component of the Spill Act’s strict liability scheme, requiring that a party seeking contribution under the Spill Act must prove by a preponderance of the evidence a “reasonable link between the discharge, the putative discharger, and the contamination at the specifically damaged site.”
In Morristown Associates, which involves contamination from a leaking underground fuel oil tank in a shopping center, the Appellate Division held that any defendant who delivered fuel oil into a leaking tank or released a hazardous substance onto the ground at the property could be liable under the Spill Act, but that the “plaintiff must establish a nexus between each defendant and the fuel-oil contamination.” Interestingly, the court ruled that liability would attach, even if it the defendant did not have actual notice that the tanks or fuel lines had been leaking. The Appellate Division also dismissed plaintiff’s common-law negligence claims, which were barred by New Jersey’s general six-year statute of limitations for injuries to property.