Opinion ID: 1653300
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Remediation Issue

Text: This court on original hearing affirmed an award by the district court of $2,100,000 for the cost of cleaning up the contaminated area caused by the pollution for which Phillips was responsible. The award by the trial court was primarily based on the testimony of H. Darryl Miller, an expert in environmental engineering, who testified as to his estimate of $1,400,400 for remedying the damage which had been sustained as of the time of trial. The trial judge used this expert's estimate as to the extent of area damage and the cost of remediation, but adjusted the estimate upward by fifty per cent. This court found that the judgment was not manifestly erroneous as to the factual findings or an abuse of discretion as to the amount of the award. This court, however, reserved plaintiff's right to seek further damages for ongoing contamination which was continuing at the time of trial. It was very difficult to describe with particularity the area of damage, especially since the extent of the area of damage varied with the depth of the testing for damage. If plaintiff seeks additional damages in the future, the burden will be on plaintiff to establish that these damages were sustained after the judgment in the present case and were in addition to the damages for which plaintiff received an award in the present case. Under the particular circumstances of this case (which occurred because Phillips and its predecessors utterly failed over a long period of time in discharging their responsibility to plug the well and to clean up the damage to the property), Phillips is adequately protected by the imposition of the burden of proof in this regard on the plaintiff.