Opinion ID: 652885
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: ifim's liability

Text: 70 Finally, we turn to the district court's decision to enter judgment in favor of IFIM on the Authority's claim for the cost of an alternative water supply and/or treatment of its current supply, and its claim for monitoring and evaluation costs. The Authority argues that the district court erred in entering judgment in favor of IFIM since IFIM never answered the Authority's complaint, and, under Fed.R.Civ.P. 8(d), when a party fails to respond to a complaint, it is deemed to have admitted all the allegations in the complaint. Although Tonolli Canada does not represent IFIM, it points out that the Authority never moved for the entry of a default judgment, as required by Fed.R.Civ.P. 55(b)(2). The district court provided no explanation for its decision to grant judgment in favor of IFIM on either count. 71 Despite the absence of an explanation for the district court's decision, we will affirm the judgment in favor of IFIM on the Authority's claim for the costs of securing a new water supply and/or continuously treating its existing water supply because the rule requiring consistency in judgments supports this portion of the judgment. See Frow v. De La Vega, 82 U.S. (15 Wall.) 552, 21 L.Ed. 60 (1872). See generally 6 James W. Moore, Walter J. Taggart & Jeremy C. Wicker, Moore's Federal Practice p 55.06 (2d ed. 1993). The district court found that the Authority's wells are not threatened by contamination from the Tonolli site due to the hydrogeological separation of the Authority's wells and the Tonolli site. This finding, of course, applies as fully to IFIM as to Tonolli Canada and means that IFIM cannot be held liable for contamination that will not occur. We will thus affirm the district court's judgment on this claim. 72 However, the rule against inconsistent judgments does not support the judgment in favor of IFIM on the claim for monitoring and evaluation costs because we are vacating the district court's judgment on the monitoring and response costs claim with respect to Tonolli PA. This rule is further inapplicable to this claim, at least with respect to the operator liability issue, because a conclusion about a subsidiary corporation's control over a sister company may have no bearing on the parent corporation's control over that company. Given the lack of evidence at trial either way regarding IFIM's liability, and the district court's failure to provide the reason for its judgment in favor of IFIM, we will vacate the judgment of the district court in favor of IFIM on the Authority's claim for monitoring and response costs and will remand to the district court. On remand, the district court should articulate a basis for its judgment in favor of IFIM, and, if the Authority makes a proper motion, it should consider whether the Authority is entitled to a default judgment.