Cercla Case

The CERCLA of life for Lenders

1 The basics

The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, or CERCLA is a federal law created in 1980 to facilitate cleanup of contaminated sites and allocate responsibility for payment of cleanup costs. You’ve probably heard of it being called the Superfund.

2 Joint and Several Liability

Under CERCLA, Joint and Several liability are considered for Superfund site cleanup and other costs on the part of more than one potentially responsible party (i.e. if there were several owners or users of a site that became contaminated over the years, they could all be considered potentially liable for cleaning up the site.).

On behalf of lenders, CERCLA contains what is called Indicia of ownership

FLEET FACTORS CORP

• The court, however, disagreed and stated that the exemption “Covers only those persons who, at the time of the clean-up hold indicia of ownership to protect a then-held security interest in the land - UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MARYLAND BANK & TRUST

The collective amounts of the loan from the three co-borrowers equals to 100 percent. Brian can no longer make his portion of the loan payments. Sara and Brian are responsible for his now portion of the loan. He’s a 30 percent co-owner of the lien debt. Sara and Brian or The bank will pursue him for the 30 percent debt he is owed on the loan. Several liability - when the amount of something, in this case a loan is divisible - then each party is responsible for his or her share of that loan.

3 CERCLA and Common Law

There are situations where contamination is caused by petroleum or natural gas that is not mentioned and excluded from Superfund law coverage, so there are situations where common law claims are the only legal means of recuperating damages. Common law also allows plaintiffs to recover losses that are not covered by CERCLA such as profits, physical buildings or personal injuries. CERCLA does not provide coverage and thus, this is where common law is made available for parties to seek damages or relief where CERCLA may not be able to assist.

Common Law and CERCLA crosses paths in a way of various means such as joint clean-up or recovery efforts; “Congress clearly did not intend, however, to leave cleanup under CERCLA solely in the hands of the federal government. A state or political subdivision may enter into a contract or cooperative agreement with EPA, whereby both may take action on a cost-sharing