Case Study: CERCLA Contribution/
Cost Recovery

DGS was joint trial counsel for Waste, Inc. in several private cost-recovery and citizen-suit actions regarding the Waste, Inc. Superfund site in Michigan City, Indiana from 1996 to 2001.  Waste, Inc. and its legal team developed a competitive private de minimis settlement after EPA's offer was rejected by most de minimis PRPs for the site.  In addition, we implemented a design-build consent decree for this former landfill site under budget and on time.  We successfully prosecuted contribution litigation against over 80 PRPs for the site and settling the vast majority of those claims with the Court's assistance well before trial and final trial preparations.

We separately prosecuted a CERCLA citizen suit against a state agency under the doctrine of Ex Parte Young, and favorably settled that claim.  We also obtained summary judgment against a purchaser of the former landfill operator’s accounts as a successor to the former operator, and obtained significant proceeds of insurance from the CGL policies of the defunct former owner-operator of the site.