Opinion ID: 147650
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Appeal in This Case

Text: In October 2007, the EPA filed a suit in the Central District of California against the Group of 10, lodging a proposed consent decree incorporating both the G13 Agreement of 2002 and the G10 Agreement of 2007. The consent decree, if approved by the court, would protect the Group of 10 from contribution claims by non-settling PRPs. The PRP defendants in the SEMOU Cases were not parties to the EPA's suit. The Department of Justice published notice of the proposed consent decree in the Federal Register on November 8, 2007 and provided a thirty-day public comment period. See Notice of Lodging of Two Consent Decrees, 72 Fed.Reg. 63,185 (Nov. 8, 2007). A group of PRPs, including most of the defendants in the SEMOU Cases, submitted comments objecting to the proposed consent decree. We will call this group Applicants. Applicants did not include any of the Group of 13 or the Group of 10. Applicants complained that the EPA had not provided sufficient information about the proposed consent decree's allocation of cleanup costs. Applicants further complained that they were unaware as to whether [a Non-Binding Preliminary Allocation of Responsibility] has been prepared by EPA. In December 2007, Applicants submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to the EPA. They received some information in response on February 19, 2008. In March 2008, Applicants moved to intervene as of right in the EPA's suit against the Group of 10 under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2) and § 113(i) of CERCLA, 42 U.S.C. § 9613(i). The district court denied intervention and entered the consent decree the next day. The Applicants timely appealed, contending that the district court erred in denying their motion to intervene as of right under Rule 24(a)(2) and § 113(i). That appeal is before us in this case.