Opinion ID: 779912
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The LPC's Litigation Costs

Text: 73 The district court deducted $8,768,387.00 from LPC's total response costs to arrive at the net recoverable response costs against which the Municipal Defendants' percentage contribution shares were assessed. The LPC contends that the court should have excluded $3,592,258.12 — the amount the LPC expended in litigation costs settling those claims — from the total settlement proceeds to accurately reflect the amounts available to be expended on remediation. The district court rejected this argument as a back-door attempt to recover attorneys' fees, which are generally not recoverable under § 113(f). We agree. 74 Neither CERCLA § 107, the liabilities and defenses provision, nor § 113, which authorizes contribution claims, expressly mentions the recovery of attorney's fees. Key Tronic Corp. v. United States, 511 U.S. 809, 815, 114 S.Ct. 1960, 128 L.Ed.2d 797 (1994). Thus, expenses incurred solely in preparation for litigation cannot be recovered as response costs unless they `significantly benefitted the entire cleanup effort and served a statutory purpose apart from the reallocation of costs.' Gussack Realty Co. v. Xerox Corp., 224 F.3d 85, 91-92 (2d Cir.2000) (quoting id. at 820, 114 S.Ct. 1960). The LPC does not argue that the attorneys' fees it incurred significantly benefitted the cleanup effort. Rather, it claims Key Tronic only precludes an award of litigation expenses, and should not apply where a party seeks to decrease an offset to its recoverable response costs. We fail to see any distinction. As the district court reasoned, if the litigation costs are not excluded from LPC's total response cost, the Municipal Defendants will wind up footing part of the bill-which would be akin to an award of fees. Accordingly, we affirm the district court on this issue. 18