Legal News

Cleanup costs at Stringfellow are in good hands with Allstate et al., court finds

By Richard Binder

On Monday the court affirmed an appellate ruling that four insurers are liable for over $500 million in one of California's most notorious environmental disaster sites, the Stringfellow Acid Pits in Riverside County, even though the state's own actions were partly responsible for toxic spills there. The court remanded the case for trial to determine the precise nature of the insurers' liability.

California has been fighting for more than 20 years to force its insurers to foot the bill for cleanup at the Stringfellow site where the state stored more than 30 million gallons of hazardous waste from 1956 to 1972. The state's assessment of the site proved to be inadequate, a fissure leaked contaminants into the soil, and in 1969 and 1978 heavy rains created spills or forced authorities to discharge some of the waste manually to stave off even larger disasters.

Click here for details at The Am Law Daily.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on March 16, 2009 (boomark / email).