Cengage Advantage Books: Foundations of the Legal Environment of Business 3rd Edition by Marianne Jennings

تمرين 13

Sullivan's Ledge, once a popular swimming and hiking area located near New Bedford, Massachusetts, has become little more than an industrial dumping ground for scrap rubber, waste oils, gas, combustion ash, and old telephone poles. The sludge became so toxic, the refuse so thick, and the stench so overwhelming that the city closed the area in the 1970s.
The EPA identified a number of business entities and their successors as responsible for the cleanup of the area. Acushnet Company entered into a consent decree with the EPA but then filed suit seeking financial contribution from Mohasco Corporation and others, including American Flexible Conduit (AFC), New England Telephone Telegraph Company (NETT), and Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. The defendant companies said that their actions were a very small part of the sludgy mess and that Acushnet was primarily responsible for the pollution.
The trial court found that there was insufficient evidence to find these companies liable under CERCLA and granted them summary judgment. Acushnet appealed. Should the companies be held liable to Acushnet for their contribution to the pollution? If so, for how much? [ Acushnet Company v. Mohasco , 191 F.3d 69 (1st Cir. 1999).]