Scribner v. Summers

The Scribners (plaintiffs) owned a property that bordered a steel-treating business owned by Jasco Sun-Steel Treating, Inc., John Summers, and Stephen Summers (Jasco) (defendants). Jasco used several large furnaces that would produce a sludge residue containing high levels of barium chloride that Jasco would wash off with water near the Scribners’ property. Jasco would also use jackhammers to break up old furnaces for transport. The residue of the washing and demolishing emptied into a swale, a structure like a drainage ditch, that ran downhill from Jasco’s property to an area adjacent to the Scribners’ property. In 1986, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation designated barium as a hazardous waste, and several years later indicted and convicted Jasco for violating the Environmental Conservation Law. The Jasco facility was registered as an ineffective hazardous-waste site. In 1991, the Scribners attempted to sell their property but could not because of the reputation of the Jasco facility. The Scribners claimed that Jasco’s waste products had contaminated their property and asserted claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) and common-law tort claims for strict liability, trespass, and private nuisance. The trial court concluded that the Scribners’ property was contaminated from high levels of barium that originated on Jasco’s property. The court granted the Scribners their response costs under CERCLA and determined that Jasco was responsible for the Scribners’ future response costs. The court held that the Scribners failed to prove any of their common-law tort causes of action. The Scribners appealed.