Opinion ID: 6928537
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: hwma liability

Text: ASARCO challenges the imposition of liability under Washington’s Hazardous Waste Management Act. While the award of cleanup costs under the HWMA is no longer in issue, because it is subsumed within the CERCLA award we have upheld, both attorney fees and prejudgment interest 'were awarded under the HWMA. ASARCO’s liability for these items, attorney fees and prejudgment interest, is dependent on its liability under the HWMA. ASARCO contends the judgment rendering it liable under the HWMA should be reversed. It argues the district court erred in refusing to grant its motion for summary judgment. The motion was based on the ground that the HWMA did not provide for a private cause of action at the time of the slag sales, and the amendment creating the private cause of action is not retroactive. It also argues the district court should have granted its motion for summary judgment because the jury’s finding that slag was a product under the WPLA precluded a finding that it was also a hazardous waste under the HWMA. ASARCO contends that even if we reject the previous two arguments, we should reverse the HWMA awards and remand for new findings because the district court erred by denying its motion for a directed verdict based on the state statute of limitations; using Washington’s 1984 regulations to instruct the jury; refusing to admit evidence that the plaintiffs violated the federal Clean Water Act; refusing to instruct the jury that ■ the plaintiffs’ violation ' of the WPCA was evidence of negligence; and giving erroneous jury instructions under the HWMA. Because we conclude the amendment to the HWMA that created a private cause of action may not be applied retroactively, we reverse the attorney fees and prejudgment interest awards under the HWMA and do not reach the other HWMA issues. In applying the amendment retroactively, the district court relied on Haddenham v. State of Washington, 87 Wash.2d 145, 550 P.2d 9 (Wash.1976). In Haddenham, the family of two murder victims sued the State of Washington for negligently administering a sexual psychopath program from which the murderer escaped. The Washington Supreme Court considered whether the statute applied retroactively to preempt the plaintiffs’ tort suit. Id. at 12. It stated: “Statutes normally will be construed to operate prospectively only, unless a contrary intent appears.... Where, however, a statute is remedial and its remedial purpose is furthered by retroactive application, the presumption favoring prospective application is reversed.” Id. at 12. The HWMA, and particularly the private-cause-of-action amendment, Wash.Rev.Code Ann. § 70.105.097, are remedial. Nevertheless, we decline to extend the Haddenham reasoning to the HWMA. The statute at issue in Haddenham did not become' effective until approximately six months after the murder, but it provided for benefits to victims of crimes “on or after January 1, 1972” which was well before the murders. Id. The Washington court was at least encouraged in its conclusion by this provision of the statute. Id. There is no such retroactivity provision in the private-cause-of-action amendment to the HWMA. Moreover, by “remedial” we do not understand the Washington Supreme Court to have meant that retroactive application will be given to any statute that creates a remedy for some harm. The statute at issue in Haddenham was remedial in a different way from the amendment to the HWMA that created a private cause of action. In Had-denham, the Crime Victims Compensation Act, the statute in question, created “a comprehensive compensation plan for victims of crime incorporating the workmen’s compensation benefit schedule.” Id. at 11. The statute provided a public remedial scheme by which a recovery could be made against the state. The amendment to the HWMA created a private cause of action for damages. Retroactive application of a public remedial scheme for recovery of compensation from the state does not - affect private obligations as does a statute that creates a private liability for a private cause of action where none existed before. When a public remedial scheme is made retroactive, the legislature retroactively imposes liability on itself. When, in contrast, a new private cause of action is made retroactive, the legislature retroactively imposes liability on private parties. Thus, a court’s inference that a public remedial scheme is intended to apply retroactively is much more reasonable than its inference that a new private cause of action is intended to apply retroactively. Finally, we have held that the private cause of action under the RCRA, a federal statute analogous to the HWMA which the plaintiffs concede should be used to interpret the HWMA, does not apply retroactively. Ascon Properties, Inc. v. Mobil Oil Co., 866 F.2d 1149, 1159 (9th Cir.1989). We conclude that the private-cause-of-action amendment to the HWMA does not apply retroactively. The plaintiffs argue nonetheless that slag continues to leach hazardous substances into the soil, that this is an ongoing injury and that judgment was appropriately entered against ASARCO under the HWMA for this injury. We reject this argument. No court has allowed a recovery for an ongoing injury under the HWMA. Cases that have allowed a recovery for ongoing contamination have done so under 42 U.S.C. § 6973(a) (1988), the provision of RCRA that gives the EPA administrator the power to enjoin persons from contributing to ongoing contamination. See United States v. Northeastern Pharmaceutical & Chemical Co., Inc., 810 F.2d 726, 740 (8th Cir.1986), cert. denied, 484 US. 848, 108 S.Ct. 146, 98 L.Ed.2d 102 (1987); United States v. Price, 523 F.Supp. 1055, 1070-71 (D.N.J.1981), aff'd, 688 F.2d 204 (3d Cir.1982). The provision of the HWMA at issue here is the private cause of action provision, more analogous to 42 U.S.C. § 6972 (1988). Cases addressing the ongoing violation theory under this provision have required that to be an ongoing violator, a defendant must own, or perhaps control, the property where seepage is taking place. Cf. Fallowfield Dev. Corp. v. Strunk, 1990 WL 52745, 1990 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 4820 (E.D.Pa.) (allowing RCRA cause of action where plaintiffs offered to show that defendants retained equitable ownership of property because its recent sale was fraudulent); Coburn v. Sun Chem. Corp., 1988 WL 120739, 1988 U.S.Dist. LEXIS 12548 (E.D.Pa.) (denying RCRA cause of action because plaintiff no longer owned property). The plaintiffs cite no section 6972 case imposing ongoing liability for a nonowner, and we have found none. ASARCO does not own or control the properties from which the slag/woodwaste mixture continues to leach hazardous substances. Because ASARCO would not be subject to a private RCRA suit for an ongoing violation, and because we look to the RCRA in interpreting Washington’s HWMA, we conclude that ASARCO has no liability for an “ongoing violation” under the HWMA, and we reverse the judgment against it for attorney fees and prejudgment interest under that statute.