On January 23, 2019 and February 6, 2019, OSHA and EPA, respectively, published their annual civil monetary penalty adjustments in the Federal Register. The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 requires federal agencies to make annual inflation adjustments to federal statutory civil penalty amounts. The annual inflation adjustments are based on a cost-of-living multiplier determined by changes to the Consumer Price Index. Continue Reading EPA and OSHA Publish Annual Inflation Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts
Environmental Site Assessments
Contamination ‘Issue’ Class Actions—Recent Certification Realities
Troutman Sanders partners Douglas Henderson and Lindsey Mann and associate Nicholas Howell had an Insight piece published in Bloomberg Law titled, “Contamination ‘Issue’ Class Actions—Recent Certification Realities.”
In the article, the authors review the confusing outcomes and mistaken promise of environmental “issue” class actions under Rule 23(c). Two cases from 2018—involving virtually identical facts—reach fundamentally different conclusions on whether such “issue” classes are appropriate in environmental exposure cases.
The authors note: “[i]f the Behr-Dayton approach stands, claim-wide predominance and superiority become aspirational, rather than the requirements they were intended to be, so long as the ‘issue’ class will, in the court’s estimation, advance the litigation or push the parties to settle.” Based on the these cases, Henderson, Mann and Howell conclude Rule 23(c) “issue” class actions should not be interpreted to resuscitate flawed putative classes under Rule 23(b).
To read the entire article, click here.
New Standard of Care Document on Environmental Due Diligence (“Phase I”) Process now available
By Jerry Samford & Andrea Rimer on
The GeoProfessional Business Association (GBA) – formerly known as ASFE – has released a new study on the standard of care for conducting Phase I environmental site assessments. This document is the fourth in a series of studies the organization has produced since the inception of the due diligence process in the early 1990’s. The study is an evaluation of approximately 200 Phase I reports from across the country, written between 2007 and 2010. The results of the study will be a valuable tool in determining whether a Phase I conducted during that time period meets the standard of care or not.