CERCLA's innocent landowner defense -- Consultants beware
- Winston and Strawn, Chicago, IL (United States)
Consultant liability is an area of the innocent landowner defense under CERCLA that is not often discussed. The only reasonable way to protect consultants hired by innocent purchasers'' is for Congress or state legislatures to establish standardized, regulated audit guidelines. However, even standardized guidelines do not protect consultants completely, because standards cannot specify all activity necessary to perform a particular task. Each project has unique circumstances, and standards arguably can become per se determinants of liability. CERCLA provides three defenses to its basic strict, joint and several liability provisions -- an act of God, an act of war, and an act or omission of a third party not in a contractual relationship with the current owner. Congress amended the third-party not in a contractual relationship with the current owner. Congress amended the third-party defense in SARA by redefining contractual relationship'' to exclude from liability owners who acquired the real property following disposal or placement of hazardous material, and established satisfactorily that the owner at the time of purchase neither knew nor had reason to know hazardous substances were disposed on the property -- the innocent landowner defense.
- OSTI ID:
- 7115129
- Journal Information:
- Hazmat World; (United States), Vol. 7:5; ISSN 0898-5685
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Passive disposal of the innocent landowner defense
H. R. 1217: This Act may be cited as the Innocent Landowner Defense Amendment of 1991, introduced in the House of Representatives, One Hundred Second Congress, First Session, February 28, 1991