San Diego partner Kristin Reyna, assisted by senior counsel Maria Solomon-Williams, obtained a dismissal of a complex groundwater contamination case in favor of their client, an environmental remediation contractor.
The case, brought by a water district against 30 defendants associated with more than 30 sites in the South Basin of Orange County, alleged groundwater in the South Basin was contaminated by perchlorate and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including perchloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE) and their daughter compounds.
Gordon & Rees’s client was the only remediation contractor named in the suit. The plaintiff alleged the firm’s client conducted or supervised the remediation at the associated site in a negligent fashion and was the alter-ego of the site owner, such that the client should also be liable as the owner of the property.
After prevailing on joint motions for summary adjudication of three of the plaintiff’s causes of action, the Gordon & Rees team filed a motion for summary adjudication on whether the client, who did not own or operate the site, qualified as a potentially responsible party under HSAA (California Superfund) or was liable under a nuisance theory. Admitting the strength of the motion, the plaintiff agreed to dismiss Gordon & Rees’s client with prejudice in exchange for a waiver of costs.