United States Ninth Circuit

Order granting plaintiff-US' motion to enter a consent decree concerning payment of the costs of hazardous waste cleanup efforts at a mine site is affirmed, where: 1) the consent decree was procedurally and substantively fair, reasonable, and consistent with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA); 2) it was not an abuse of discretion for the district court to forge a comparative fault analysis; and 3) the US appropriately considered defendant's financial health when concluding that the proposed settlement represented the maximum amount of money it could contribute to the cleanup costs.

Appellate Information

• Decided 09/16/2014
• Published 09/16/2014

Judges

• Murguia

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel