Cost Recovery, Contribution and
Citizen Suit Claims

MGKF has a broad range of experience handling environmental cost recovery, contribution and citizen suit claims, for both plaintiffs and defendants, including large and small companies and individuals, in state and federal court as well as at the pre-complaint stage. Our representations involve a wide variety of environmental cost recovery and contribution theories and citizen suit provisions available in federal court, and the courts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, including claims and threatened claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act; Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; Clean Water Act; Clean Air Act; Oil Pollution Act; Pennsylvania Hazardous Sites Cleanup Act; Pennsylvania Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act; Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law; Pennsylvania Air Pollution Control Act; New Jersey Spill Act; New Jersey Environmental Rights Act; and Pennsylvania and New Jersey common-law theories.

We have been involved in all manner of cost recovery, contribution and citizen suit cases from large multi-party disputes involving hundreds of parties navigating a complicated allocation or representing a primary defendant, to claims involving two or more potentially responsible corporate clients litigating the funding of an environmental cleanup. We have litigated cases complicated by corporate successor liability issues, bankruptcy issues, condemnation proceedings, contractual indemnifications, lender liability issues, and statutes of limitations.

Our breadth of experience litigating and negotiating complicated cost recovery claims and citizen suits, and experience working with the firm's technical consultants as well as outside technical consultants and clients' in-house technical personnel, has positioned us well to handle even the most difficult claims involving complicated scientific and engineering issues and claims for truly historic contamination going back decades and, on occasion, even a century or more.

Representative MGKF matters involving cost recovery, contribution and citizen suit claims include the following:

• The firm has defended and negotiated cost recovery claims brought by federal and state governmental entities.
• We have defended and asserted private-party cost recovery and contribution claims on behalf of large companies, small businesses, and individuals.
• MGKF has defended against claims brought by citizen groups, including successfully representing a municipal sewer authority in litigation brought under the federal Clean Water Act by a citizens group in federal court where the citizens group's claims were dismissed on dispositive motions and the decision was affirmed by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
• We successfully defended a large corporate client in litigation filed by a citizens group in federal court intended to shut down our client's operations.
• The firm has represented consultants and remedial action contractors involved in remediation activities at contaminated sites, who were sued by the potentially responsible parties at those sites.
• We have resolved cost recovery and contribution claims for clients without filing suit and through alternative dispute resolution.