Chapter 4: Waste Management and Pollution Prevention

Contribution Claims Under §107 and §113 of CERCLA: The Atlantic Research Decision (pp. 416-22)

As discussed on p. 417 of the casebook, in 2004 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Cooper Industries v. Aviall Services, Inc., 543 U.S. 157 (2004), that a private party who had not been subjected to an enforcement or cost recovery action under §106 or 107 of CERCLA may not obtain contribution for cleanup costs under §113(f)(1).  While this decision was widely criticized for discouraging voluntary cleanup of releases of hazardous substance, the Court expressly reserved the question whether such a party could obtain contribution under §107 of CERCLA.  Three years later in United States v. Atlantic Research Corp., 127 S.Ct. 2331 (2007), the Court unanimously ruled that §107does provide potentially responsible parties with a right of action for contribution.  An edited copy of this decision appears in the 2008-2009 edition of our Statutory and Case Supplement on pp. 1047-1050.