Opinion ID: 199558
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Ashland

Text: In 1977, Ashland operated a chemical manufacturing plant in - 44 - Great Meadows, New Jersey, generating waste that contained nitrating acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, and solvents composed of isopropyl alcohol, methyl alcohol, toluene, benzene, and xylene. It is undisputed that Ashland contracted with CWR to dispose of this waste, and the record supports the district court's finding that CWR transported waste to the Davis site. While Michael Musillo of CWR testified that between 1975 and 1977 the company took all of its waste initially to the Sanitary Landfill owned by the Capuanos, Jack Capuano testified that after April 1977, when the landfill began getting complaints about odor, his brother Anthony Capuano began diverting some of CWR's waste to the Davis site. CWR's pickup slips and billing records, as well as Ashland's disposal logs, show that during May and June of 1977, CWR picked up thirteen tanker loads and four flatbed loads from Ashland. Each of the flatbed loads contained 79 55-gallon drums. One of the flatbed pickups took place on June 1 and another occurred on June 30. Davis receipts bearing the name Capuano, signed by Wilbert Jones, and recording 79drum loads, show that CWR deliveries were diverted from Sanitary Landfill to the Davis site on June 2 and July 5. Based on its theory that CWR delivered its waste within three days of accumulating a full flatbed load, and the explanation that the intervening weekend and July 4th holiday accounted for the five-day gap between June 30 and July 5, the district court found Ashland liable for the waste that CWR - 45 - delivered to the Davis site on June 2 and July 5. There is evidence in the record to support the court's conclusion. Emanuel Musillo, principal of CWR, testified that when a driver picked up a full 79-drum load early in the day, he would go straight to Rhode Island to dispose of it. When a driver picked up a full load late in the day or picked up only a partial load, he would park the load at CWR overnight. The next day the driver would either continue to Rhode Island if the truck was full, or collect waste from another customer if it was not. While Musillo did not definitively testify that CWR always delivered waste within three days of collecting it, he said that when a driver accumulated a full 79-drum load, the drums would be taken to Rhode Island within a few days, I would imagine. CWR driver Wilbert Jones also testified that after picking up a complete load, he would leave it at CWR overnight and then leave for Rhode Island early the next morning. Ashland challenges the court's factual findings on several grounds.22 Ashland begins by pointing out that UTC presented no direct evidence, such as drums or other containers bearing Ashland's name and 22Ashland titles the section of its brief challenging the district court's factual findings As a Matter of Law, Ashland Could not Be Found Liable. This attempt to win de novo review fails. [A]ppellant's plaint boils down to little more than thinly veiled dissatisfaction with the district court's factual findings. Dedham Water, 972 F.2d at 460. Ashland's alternate theories about why the court should have made other findings and inferences are factual rather than legal theories and so are subject to the clear error standard. - 46 - found at the Davis site, to show that Ashland's waste was on the CWR deliveries to the Davis site. While Ashland is correct, direct evidence is not a prerequisite to proving the elements of liability in a contribution action. See 42 U.S.C. § 9613(f) (setting forth elements of liability). To attack the district court's finding that CWR disposed of waste within three days of collecting it, Ashland offers alternative scenarios. Ashland's most plausible theory is based on Jones's testimony that the Musillos sometimes offloaded nonflammable liquid waste by pouring it from drums into a tanker truck or underground storage facility at CWR.23 Ashland argues that its waste thus was likely unloaded at CWR's Bridgeport site after pickup and either mixed with other waste or stored there for an indefinite period. Additional testimony by Jones and the Musillos calls this theory into question. Jones was asked this question: [L]et's suppose that you brought back some drums from one or more customers to Bridgeport, and that you offloaded those drums. Let's say it wasn't a full load. Typically, how long would it take before those offloaded 23 Jones said in response to a question about whether CWR mixed waste collected at different times: Things, anything that could be mixed and wouldn't explode, catch a fire, put it in the tanker. Then when the tanker is full take it to Rhode Island. Jones also said if there was, let's say, an overflow of drums, there were more pickups to be made, and we couldn't handle it because the truck was full, and they had to be made, we would take them off, put them in the warehouse until we get a trip to go up to Rhode Island. - 47 - drums would find their way to Rhode Island to be dumped? Jones answered: No more than three days. Jones also said that the Musillos, not he, did most of the mixing work. Emanuel Musillo testified that offloading was not CWR's normal practice because of the double work involved. He said that when drums were offloaded, they usually contained waste oil that CWR could resell. Musillo also said that occasionally other kinds of waste were stored at CWR, but only until the next delivery trip to Rhode Island. Michael Musillo corroborated aspects of his brother's account. In light of this testimony, the district court did not err in finding that it was more likely than not that the waste CWR collected from Ashland on June 1 and June 30 was the waste the transporter delivered to the Davis site on June 2 and July 5. Since both pickups from Ashland were full 79-drum loads, it seems particularly unlikely that CWR drivers would have taken a full load off the flatbed truck on one day, only to deliver a full load of different drums to the Davis site on the next business day. Ashland's alternative scenarios are simply competing inferences that the district court chose not to draw. Dedham Water, 972 F.2d at 457. Such a choice cannot be clear error. Ashland's other alternative scenarios also run afoul of the clear error standard. First, Ashland argues that CWR often kept waste at its Bridgeport facility for unspecified periods, making it unlikely - 48 - that the transporter delivered Ashland's waste to the Davis site within three days of collecting it. Ashland cites evidence that 13,000 drums of waste were stockpiled at CWR in the fall of 1977. However, since Emanuel Musillo testified that stockpiling did not begin until CWR's disposal sites were shut down after the summer of 1977, the evidence on this point does not undermine the district court's findings. Second, Ashland argues that the June 2 and July 5 disposals that CWR made at Davis likely contained waste generated by an unknown source that CWR picked up from an unidentified parking lot in the New Jersey Meadowlands. While Jones testified that he picked up drum loads of waste from a parking lot somewhere in the Meadowlands not more than eight or ten times during 1977, he did not remember the dates of those pickups. His testimony thus lacks the specifics necessary to link the Meadowlands pickups to the June 2 and July 5 deliveries to the Davis site. Finally, Ashland argues that the June 2 and July 5 disposals contained waste that CWR picked up from CCC customers. There is no evidence to show that CWR picked up waste for CCC during the relevant time period.24 24 Ashland and PE also argue that the district court's finding that CWR had an established practice of delivering waste within three days of collecting it conflicts with United States v. Newman, 982 F.2d 665 (1st Cir. 1992). However, Newman is inapposite to the case at hand. In that case, we held that a trial judge did not abuse his discretion by excluding material habit evidence under Federal Rule of Evidence 406 when that evidence did not require the conclusion that the putative practice was followed with the necessary regularity. Id. at 669 (emphasis added). Newman thus concerns the standards for the - 49 - In short, while the testimony by Jones and the Musillos contains some minor ambiguities, the district court did not err by inferring that CWR regularly disposed of waste within three days of collecting it, or by inferring that CWR transported Ashland's waste to the Davis site on June 2 and July 5.25