Source: https://elr.info/sites/default/files/litigation/28.21020.htm
Timestamp: 2019-08-21 02:22:06
Document Index: 220466981

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 9601', '§ 9601', '§ 25300', '§ 25358', '§ 9607', '§ 1291', '§ 1291', '§ 1291', '§ 1292', '§ 2072', '§ 2071', '§ 25358', '§ 25358']

28 ELR 21020 | Environmental Law Reporter | copyright © 1998 | All rights reserved
No. 93-16754 (138 F.3d 772, 46 ERC 1362) (9th Cir. March 9, 1998)
The court holds that the trustees of a manufacturer's estate are liable for the trichloroethylene (TCE) contamination under state nuisance and environmental laws. A district court issued interlocutory orders finding the trustees liable under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and under state nuisance and environmental laws. The district court issued an injunction under state law that originated from a state environmental agency's order requiring the defendants to clean up the TCE contamination. The trustees appealed.
Sandra Goldberg, Deputy Attorney General
(510) 286-4200
Dale C. Campbell, L. Burda Gilbert
400 Capitol Mall, 11th Fl., Sacramento CA 95814
[28 ELR 21020]
Pregerson, J.
For almost twenty years, Victor Industries contaminated groundwater by dumping hazardous chemicals onto the ground at its manufacturing plant. The State of California sued the defendants under state environmental and nuisance law to require them to clean up the contaminated water. California also sought reimbursement from the defendants under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601, et seq., for the money that California spent investigating the contamination.
On behalf of the Department, the State of California filed a complaint in federal court to require the defendants to clean up the contamination and to recover the money that the Department had spent investigating the contamination. The complaint named as defendants [28 ELR 21021] the executors of Muscat's estate and the trustees of Muscat's testamentary trusts.1
California moved for summary adjudication of three of its six claims: a federal environmental claim under CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601, et seq.; a state public nuisance claim under California's common law; and a state environmental claim under California's Hazardous Substance Account Act, Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 25300 et seq. Specifically, California argued that the defendants were liable as a matter of law for violating both CERCLA and the state laws. As a remedy for the state law violations, California requested a permanent injunction requiring the defendants to abate the public nuisance that the trichloroethylene contamination had caused.
Under California law, those responsible for polluting groundwater can be held liable for creating a public nuisance and for violating California's environmental laws. See Carter v. Chotiner, 210 Cal. 288, 291 (1930) (polluted water is a public nuisance); Selma Pressure Treating Co., Inc. v. Osmose Wood Preserving Co., 221 Cal. App. 3d 1601, 1616-20 (1990) (any person who creates or helps create and maintain a nuisance is liable for its abatement and damages); Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25358.3 (those responsible for endangering the public's health or safety or the environment may have to take remedial action to protect the public and the environment). Under CERCLA, any person who owned or operated a facility when hazardous substances were disposed there is liable for the costs that the government incurs when it responds to the contamination. 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a) ("any person who at the time of disposal of any hazardous substance owned or operated any facility at which such hazardous substances were disposed of . . . shall be liable for . . . all costs of removal and remedial action incurred by the United States Government or a State . . . .").
Before we address these issues on the merits, we must determine that we have jurisdiction to do so. As a general rule, federal courts of appeal have jurisdiction only over final decisions of the district courts. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (granting federal appellate courts "jurisdiction of appeals from all final decisions of the district courts"). A final decision is one that "ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment." Catlin v. United States, 324 U.S. 229, 233 (1945) (citing St. Louis I.M. & S.R.R. v. Southern Express Co., 108 U.S. 24, 28 (1883)). Accordingly, an order that determines liability but not damages is not a final decision, In re Frontier Properties, Inc., 979 F.2d 1358, 1362 (9th Cir. 1992); nor is an order that adjudicates less than all claims a final decision, Chacon v. Babcock, 640 F.2d 221, 222 (9th Cir. 1981).
The Supreme Court has recognized that "§ 1291 permits appeals not only from a final decision by which a district court disassociates itself from a case, but also from a small category of decisions that, although they do not end the litigation, must nonetheless be considered 'final.'" Swint v. Chambers County Comm'n, 514 U.S. 35, 42 (1995) (citing Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 546 (1949)). This small category of decisions "includes only decisions that are conclusive, that resolve important questions separate from the merits, and that are effectively unreviewable on appeal from the final judgment in the underlying action." Id. (citing Cohen, 337 U.S. at 546).
[28 ELR 21022]
The case then came before the Supreme Court. The Court agreed that the Eleventh Circuit had jurisdiction over the police officers' appeal, but held that "the Circuit Court did not thereby gain authority to review the denial of the Chambers County Commission's motion for summary judgment." Swint, 514 U.S. at 38. In other words, "there [was no] 'pendent party' appellate authority to take up theCommission's case." Id.
In so holding, the Court noted that the federal courts of appeals have endorsed the doctrine of pendent jurisdiction. Id. at 44 n.2. The Court also acknowledged the parties' argument that § 1291's final decision requirement is designed to prevent parties from interrupting litigation by pursuing piecemeal appeals and that once litigation has already been interrupted by an authorized pretrial appeal, there is no cause to resist the economy that pendent jurisdiction promotes. Id. at 45.
But the Court stated that "[t]hese arguments drift away from the statutory instructions Congress has given to control the timing of appellate proceedings." Id. If courts of appeals had discretion to hear "pendent" appeals, then Congress' statutory arrangement would be undermined. Id. at 45-48 (discussing 28 U.S.C. § 1292, which lists certain interlocutory appeals that are immediately appealable, and § 2072(c) of the Rules Enabling Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2071 et seq., which grants the Supreme Court rulemaking authority to proscribe which interlocutory orders are appealable).
Given the Supreme Court's criticism of pendent appellate jurisdiction, the Court's "inextricably intertwined" exception should be narrowly construed. Under such a construction, the CERCLA order is not inextricably intertwined with the injunction. As explained above, the district court granted the injunction to abate the public nuisance that was caused by the trichloroethylene contamination at the 20th Street Property. We can easily address the defendants' state law liability without discussing the defendants' CERCLA liability. Just because the same facts are involved in both issues does not make the two issues inextricably intertwined. See Swint, 514 U.S. 35; United States v. Stanley, 483 U.S. 669, 676-78 (1987); Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 662-63 (1977) (all holding that appellate court with inter-locutory jurisdiction over one ruling lacked jurisdiction to review factually-related rulings that were not independently appealable).
In sum, the interlocutory CERCLA order does not fall under the collateral order doctrine, the interlocutory-appeal statute, or the "inextricably intertwined" doctrine. We therefore lack jurisdiction to hear the CERCLA portion of this appeal. Accordingly, we will now turn to the portions of the appeal over which we do have jurisdiction; the appeal fromthe district court's order finding the defendants liable under state law and the appeal from the district court's order issuing an injunction against the defendants.
"References in memoranda and declarations to a need for discovery do not qualify as motions under Rule 56(f)." Brae Transp., Inc. v. Coopers & Lybrand, 790 F.2d 1439, 1443 (9th Cir. 1986). Rather, Rule 56(f) requires litigants to submit affidavits setting forth the particular facts expected from further discovery. We have stated that "[f]ailure to comply with the requirements of Rule 56(f) is a proper ground for denying discovery and proceeding to summary judgment." Id.
The record does not show whether the defendants ever actually submitted affidavits setting forth the particular evidence that they had hoped to elicit from further discovery. It appears from the record that the defendants only implicitly moved for more time to conduct discovery. For instance, when addressing the defendants' request for an extension of time, the district court did not refer to any specific motion by the defendants. Instead, the district court stated that the "[d]efendants imply that they will request further time for discovery of the facts upon which plaintiff bases its motion." The defendants' apparent non-compliance with the terms of the statute provides an adequate ground for us to affirm the district court's denial of the defendants' request for more discovery. See id.
In any event, as we have emphasized, "[d]enial of a Rule 56(f) application is proper where it is clear that the evidence sought is almost certainly nonexistent or is the object of pure speculation." Terrell v. Brewer, 935 F.2d 1015, 1018 (9th Cir. 1991).
Here, the defendants wanted more time to discover the source of the groundwater contamination at Stanley Park. There is undisputed evidence, however, that workers at Victor Industries dumped trichloroethylene at the 20th Street Property for almost twenty years, that groundwater under the 20th Street Property is contaminated with trichloroethylene, that a well located between the 20th Street Property and the Louisiana Pacific Property is contaminated with trichloroethylene, that the Louisiana Pacific Property is not contaminated with trichloroethylene, and that the groundwater is flowing from the 20th [28 ELR 21023] Street Property toward Stanley Park. Given these uncontroverted facts, evidence that the 20th Street Property was not the source of contamination at Stanley Park is "almost certainly nonexistent or is the object of pure speculation." Id.
The undisputed evidence that trichloroethylene contaminated the soil and groundwater at the 20th Street Property is sufficient to establish the defendants' liability under California law. To succeed on its summary adjudication motion, California need not prove that property other than the 20th Street Property suffered from contamination. Under California law, the pollution at the 20th Street Property constitutes a public nuisance and violates California's environmental laws. See Carter v. Chotiner, 210 Cal. 288, 291 (1930) (polluted water is a public nuisance); Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25358.3 (when a release or threatened release of hazardous substances endangers the environment, those responsible may have to take remedial action). Therefore, any additional data about contamination at property other than the 20th Street Property is not relevant to oppose the summary adjudication motion. See McCormick, 26 F.3d at 885 (concluding that additional testimony "would have made no difference on summary judgment, because the allegedly omitted material would not have altered the total mix of information available" to the plaintiff).
Summary adjudication "shall be rendered forthwith if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). "By its very terms, this standard provides that the mere existence of some alleged factual dispute between the parties will not defeat an otherwise properly supported motion for summary judgment; the requirement is that there be no genuine issue of material fact." Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247-48 (1986). Thus, the relevant inquiry in a summary adjudication motion is threefold: is there a genuine issue, is that issue about a material fact, and is the moving party entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
Given the following facts, no reasonable juror could conclude that the Louisiana Pacific Property, rather than the 20th Street Property, was the source of the contamination at Stanley Park: (1) From 1963 to 1980, workers at Victor Industries used large quantities of trichloroethylene as a degreaser at the 20th Street Property and dumped it on the ground there; (2) scientists detected trichloroethylene contamination in the soil and in the water at the 20th Street Property; (3) water flows from higher ground to lower ground; (4) the Louisiana Pacific Property is downgradient from the 20th Street Property; (5) a well located between the two properties — in other words, downgradient from the 20th Street Property and upgradient from the Louisiana Pacific Property — is contaminated with trichloroethylene; and (6) testing of various sources of contamination at the Louisiana Pacific Property revealed no trichloroethylene.3 Thus, if Lucas's maps were accurate and there really was more trichloroethylene near the Louisiana Pacific Property than there was away from it, then the trichloroethylene must have flowed from the 20th Street Property and accumulated at the edge of the Louisiana Pacific Property. No other conclusion is reasonable given the undisputed facts of this case. Accordingly, there is no genuine dispute about which property polluted the water at Stanley Park and the other off-site locations.
The relevant substantive law here is California nuisance law and California environmental law. Under these laws, polluted water is a public nuisance, Carter v. Chotiner, 210 Cal. 288, 291 (1930), and any person who creates or helps create and maintain a nuisance is liable for its abatement and damages. Selma Pressure Treating Co., Inc. v. Osmose Wood Preserving Co., 221 Cal. App. 3d 1601, 1619-20 (1990). Furthermore, when a release or threatened release of hazardous substances endangers the environment, those responsible may be ordered to take remedial action. Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25358.3.
Thus, to state a claim under California law, California need not prove that trichloroethylene migrated from the 20th Street Property to other areas. It is enough that the water under the 20th Street Property itself was contaminated. In other words, the polluted water at the 20th Street Property created a public nuisance and endangered the environment. The cause of the trichloroethylene contamination at Stanley [28 ELR 21024] Park and other off-site areas is therefore immaterial to California's state law claims.
Given that there is no-genuine dispute about any material fact, the defendants can defeat the summary adjudication order only if the facts do not entitle California to judgment as a matter of law. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c) (summary judgment is appropriate when there is no genuine issue of material fact and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law). The defendants argue that California is not entitled to judgment as a matter of law because the defendants were not owners or operators of the 20th Street Property at the time that hazardous chemicals were disposed there.
Unlike CERCLA, California law imposes liability on any person who maintains a nuisance — regardless of whether that person has an interest in the land. Hardin v. Sin Claire, 115 Cal. 460, 463-64 (1896) (holding administrator of an estate liable for maintaining a nuisance even though it was the decedent who had originally created the nuisance). As executors of Muscat's estate and trustees over Muscat's trusts, the appellants maintained a nuisance by administering property where hazardous chemicals were polluting the water. Therefore, the appellants are liable under California law regardless of whether they were owners or operators under CERCLA. Accordingly, the district court properly found that California was entitled to judgment as a matter of law on the state law claims.
In their final argument, the defendants contend that the district court violated Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(d) by incorporating the Department's order into the injunction. Rule 65(d) provides that every order granting an injunction "shall describe in reasonable detail, and not by reference to the complaint or other document, the act or acts sought to be restrained . . . ." Fed. R. Civ. P. 65(d). Ordinarily, "an injunction should not incorporate by reference another document." Davis v. City and County of San Francisco, 890 F.2d 1438, 1450 (9th Cir. 1989) (quoting Henry Hope X-Ray Prods., Inc. v. Marron Carrel, Inc., 674 F.2d 1336, 1343 (9th Cir. 1982)).
The district court properly found the defendants liable under California's nuisance and environmental laws and properly issued an injunctionagainst the defendants. Given the interlocutory posture of this case, however, we lack appellate jurisdiction to consider whether the district court also properly found the defendants liable for California's clean-up [sic] costs under CERCLA. Accordingly, the CERCLA portion of this appeal is DISMISSED and the remaining portions of this appeal are AFFIRMED.
1. After California filed this lawsuit, the Connecticut Superior Court, which oversaw Muscat's estate, removed the trustees and placed the trust assets into receivership. The federal court in California then substituted Western Resources, Inc., the appointed receiver, as a defendant in place of the trustees. Western Resources intervened in this appeal and filed a brief in support of the appellants' arguments.
2. Western Resources appealed separately. Its appeal is therefore discussed in a separate opinion, which is found at California v. Campbell, __ F.3d __ [28 ELR 21024] (9th Cir. 1998).
3. The defendants argue that the Louisiana Pacific Property is not downgradient from the 20th Street Property and that the Louisiana Pacific Property is polluted with trichloroethylene. They have failed to present any evidence to support these arguments, however. Instead, they argue that they need more time to obtain such evidence. As discussed above, this argument is not persuasive. The defendants failed to file the necessary affidavit and they failed to show that additional discovery would uncover essential facts. Thus, although the court must view genuinely-disputed facts in the light most favorable to the defendants, it must treat these unrebutted facts as true.
4. Although the modification provision is part of an order that was incorporated into the injunction, the district court specifically excepted that provision from the injunction:
If the State construes my order as incorporating [the modification provision] . . ., it seems to me that [the modification provision] . . . provides the Executive Branch with authority to engage in urtilateral action. I don't think that the Executive Branch should have the authority to engage in such action . . . and I have no intention of embracing such action.