Opinion ID: 781962
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Boughton Trial and Dodge I

Text: 7 In 1991, a multitude of Lincoln Park residents filed an action under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 9601-9675, the Price-Anderson Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2210(n)(2), and Colorado law alleging that Cotter's negligent handling, maintenance, transportation and storage of hazardous materials used or produced at the Mill caused damage to their health and property. Residents who could not claim direct physical injury as a result of exposure sought instead to recover for the expense of medical monitoring that they claimed was necessitated by their increased health risks caused by the exposure. 8 After class certification was denied, representative plaintiffs selected for the first trial (the Boughton group) convinced a jury that Cotter was negligent in operating the Mill but failed to establish that their alleged exposure to hazardous materials required future medical monitoring. The Boughton plaintiffs' appeal of the denial of class certification and other issues was rejected. See Boughton v. Cotter Corp., 65 F.3d 823 (10th Cir.1995). In 1998, a second group of plaintiffs (the Dodge group) brought their claims to trial, hoping to make use of the finding of negligence from the Boughton trial. After the district court ruled that it would allow the offensive use of collateral estoppel of the Boughton jury's finding of negligence, the Dodge group plaintiffs successfully established causation of their physical injuries and were awarded monetary damages by a jury. However, after we concluded in February 2000 that the district court incorrectly applied the doctrine of offensive collateral estoppel, we reversed and remanded to the district court for retrial. Dodge I, 203 F.3d at 1193.