United States Ninth Circuit

Dismissal of plaintiff's action under section 113(f) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), seeking a share of cleanup costs paid for environmental harm at a superfund site, is reversed, where: 1) plaintiff was not barred by CERCLA's three-year statute of limitations for claims seeking contribution after entry of a judicially approved settlement, as the first amended complaint related back to the date of the original complaint because it arose out of the same conduct, transaction, or occurrence as that set forth in the original complaint; 2) the original complaint was timely; and 3) a "mutual release" provision in the parties' settlement agreement did not unambiguously release the claim in this case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 08/27/2014
• Published 08/27/2014

Judges

• Carney

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel