Kinzua Resources, LLC v. Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
Oregon Supreme Court
468 P.3d 410 (2020)
- Written by Jamie Milne, JD
Facts
Kinzua Resources, LLC (Kinzua) (defendant) was the permit holder and owner of Pilot Rock Landfill. When the landfill became inactive, Kinzua failed to satisfy the proper closure requirements under Oregon law. The law specified that if a permit holder did not properly close the landfill, then any other persons owning or controlling the site were required to fulfill the closure requirements. Kinzua was a limited-liability company with two members, Frontier Resources, LLC (Frontier) and ATR Services, Inc. (ATR) (defendants). Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission (commission) issued an order finding that Frontier and ATR were persons with a right to control the landfill site. The order imposed liability on Frontier and ATR for failing to satisfy the closure requirements. Frontier and ATR appealed the order to the court of appeals, arguing that (1) they were protected by the liability shield that the limited-liability-company business form provides to its members and (2) the Oregon statute regarding closure requirements should be construed to apply only to persons actively involved in the operation or management of a landfill site, not those that merely have a right to theoretically control a site. After the court of appeals reversed the commission’s order, the Oregon Supreme Court granted review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Flynn, J.)
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