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United States v. MacDonald & Watson Waste Oil Co.

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
933 F.2d 35 (1991)

Written by Craig Conway, LLM

Facts

Eugene D’Allesandro (defendant) was president, and a “hands on” manager, of MacDonald & Watson Waste Oil Company (MacDonald) (defendant), a company that transported and disposed of hazardous, contaminated wastes. MacDonald operated a disposal facility at the Poe Street Lot (Lot), a facility leased from the Narrangansett Improvement Company (NIC). Neither MacDonald nor NIC held a permit to dispose of solid hazardous waste at the Lot, although NIC held a permit to dispose of liquid wastes there. MacDonald was hired to remove solid waste, toluene-contaminated soil, from Master Chemical Company’s location and to dispose of it at the Lot. A consultant had warned D’Allesandro on two prior occasions that MacDonald’s receipt of toluene-contaminated soil from other customers violated NIC’s permit Subsequently, D’Allesandro was convicted of knowingly transporting and causing the transportation of hazardous waste to a facility that did not have a permit in violation of § 3008(d)(1) of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). D’Allesandro appealed, arguing that the district judge incorrectly instructed the jury regarding the element of knowledge in the case of a corporate officer.

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