Opinion ID: 6986366
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Future Response Costs

Text: The jury’s award of $1,083,585 for plaintiffs’ CERLCA claim cannot be affirmed as compensation for future costs that plaintiffs will incur remediating the Gussack property. The proper remedy for future response costs is not a present lump-sum payment of anticipated expenses but instead a declaratory judgment award dividing future response costs among responsible parties. See 42 U.S.C. § 9613(g)(2); Bedford Affiliates v. Sills, 156 F.3d 416, 432 (2d Cir.1998) (affirming district court’s declaratory judgment award). By awarding plaintiffs $1,083,585 for the “future costs of cleaning-up the Gussack Property,” the district court provided a remedy not available under CERCLA. Moreover, since neither party on appeal has argued for a declaratory judgment apportioning future response costs, we decline to remand for reconsideration of this issue. Plaintiffs have not incurred any compensable expenses under CERCLA and the claim therefore fails as a matter of law. Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is reversed insofar as it is based on plaintiffs’ CERCLA claim. With the CERCLA claim dismissed, we see no basis for sustaining the district court’s order that plaintiffs indemnify Xerox for future response costs Xerox might incur remediating plaintiffs’ property. The district court’s future indemnification award is therefore reversed and we need not consider plaintiffs’ due process challenge to the award.