Why is it important to hire experts, even on things that seem rather "obvious"? When it comes to litigation, lay persons should not rely on their own observations and beliefs when it comes to scientific or technical matters that experts should address. The...
Month: November 2017
Supreme Court May Determine When Tenants Are Subject to “Ownership Liability” Under CERCLA
When is a tenant liable as an owner under the federal Superfund law (aka CERCLA)? Right now, the answer depends on which federal court hears your case. There appears to be a big difference of opinions between the 9th and 2nd Federal Appellate Circuits: the 9th Circuit...
New York Proposes New Perchloroethylene (PERC) Regulations For Dry Cleaners
Major changes are coming to the dry cleaning industry in New York. Business owners and managers must become familiar with these new round of proposed NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations that will likely impose significant financial and...
Contract Terms Have Specific, Carefully Defined Meanings, and are Not Ambiguous, and so Extrinsic and Parol Evidence to be Excluded, and Buyer of Kalamazoo Coating Resin Business Must Remediate Site
A recent federal case in New York was a reminder that in contract litigation, the parties should be careful what they claim about how "unambiguous" a contract provision assigning environmental liabilities, as elsewhere, and that in contract drafting, even apparently...
Insurance pollution exclusion: entire pollution claim denied under exclusion, even if one of the sources of contamination was eligible for coverage
Does a pollution exclusion clause that bars coverage under an indemnification provision in an insurance policy as to one of the sources of contamination also bar coverage that should apply to another source of the same contamination that is not by itself excluded from...
