Ouellette v. International Paper Co., 201
Decision Date | 04 November 1985 |
Docket Number | No. 201,D,201 |
Citation | 776 F.2d 55 |
Parties | , 16 Envtl. L. Rep. 20,012 Harmel OUELLETTE and Lila Ouellette, Clifton Browne and Edla Browne, Aldee Plouffe and Shirley Plouffe, individually, on behalf of themselves, and on behalf of all similarly situated plaintiffs, H. Vaughn Griffin, Sr., Ardath Griffin, Alan Thorndike and Ellen Thorndike, Wesley C. Larrabee and Virginia Larrabee, F. Alfred Patterson, Jr., and Lois T. Patterson, Plaintiffs-Appellees, v. INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANY, Defendant-Appellant. ocket 85-7506. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit |
Susan F. Eaton, Middlebury, Vt. (Peter F. Langrock, Emily J. Joselson, Langrock Sperry Parker & Wool, Middlebury, Vt., Smith, Harlow & Liccardi, Rutland, Vt., Jeffrey L. Amestoy, Atty. Gen. of the State of Vt., Montpelier, Vt., of counsel), for plaintiffs-appellees.
James W.B. Benkard, New York City (Jamie Stern, John R. D'Angelo, Davis Polk & Wardwell, New York City, Dinse, Erdmann & Clapp, Burlington, Vt., of counsel), for defendant-appellant.
Before KAUFMAN, PRATT, and MINER, Circuit Judges.
By order dated February 5, 1985, the district court, Albert W. Coffrin, Chief Judge, denied defendant's motion pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(c) and 56(b) to dismiss plaintiffs' cause of action concerning water pollution. Ouellette v. International Paper Co., 602 F.Supp. 264 (D.Vt.1985). The district court held (i) that the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.S.C. Secs. 1251 et seq. authorizes this action involving interstate water pollution claims by owners of property in Vermont against an effluent producer located in New York to be maintained in the courts and under the common law of the State of Vermont, where the alleged injuries occurred; (ii) that neither the Two-Party Agreement nor the Four-Party Agreement entered into by the State of Vermont in settlement of Vermont v. New York, 419 U.S. 955, 95 S.Ct. 246, 42 L.Ed.2d 260 (1974), bars this suit; and (iii) that plaintiffs have alleged sufficient special damages to state a claim for nuisance.
We affirm the order appealed from, essentially for the reasons set forth in Chief Judge Coffrin's thorough opinion, which we adopt in all respects except one. Chief Judge Coffrin distinguished Badgley v. City of New York, 606 F.2d 358 (2d Cir.1979), cert. denied, 447 U.S. 907, 100 S.Ct. 2989, 64 L.Ed.2d 855 (1980), finding that the settlement contract at bar differed "in two important ways"...
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