Am. Premier Underwriters Inc. v. Gen. Elec. Co.

• Decision Date: 28 September 2012
• Docket Number: Case No. 1:05cv437.
• Citation: 900 F.Supp.2d 753
• Parties: AMERICAN PREMIER UNDERWRITERS INC., Plaintiff, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Ohio

900 F.Supp.2d 753

AMERICAN PREMIER UNDERWRITERS INC., Plaintiff,

v.GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, Defendant.

Case No. 1:05cv437.

United States District Court,

S.D. Ohio,

Western Division.

Sept. 28, 2012.

Michael Lawrence Cioffi, Nathaniel R. Jones, Thomas H. Stewart, Jason D. Groppe, Blank Rome LLP, Cincinnati, OH, Richard L. Kremnick, Scott E. Coburn, Blank Rome LLP, Philadelphia, PA, for Plaintiff.

David W. Walulik, Frost Brown Todd LLC, Cincinnati, OH, Jon R. Fetterolf, Robert J. Shaughnessy, Steven R. Kuney, Brett R. Tobin, Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington, DC, for Defendant.

OPINION & ORDER

MICHAEL R. BARRETT, District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Plaintiff American Premier Underwriters, Inc.'s (“APU”) Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the Issue of Defendant's Indemnification Liability. (Doc. 93.) Defendant General Electric (“GE”) has filed a Response in Opposition (Doc. 104), and APU filed a Reply (Doc. 141).¹

I. BACKGROUND

Plaintiff APU is the successor to the Penn Central Transportation Company (“Penn Central”). This action arises from contamination at four rail yards operated by Penn Central prior to April 1, 1976: (1) the Paoli Yard, located in Paoli, Pennsylvania; (2) the South Amboy Yard, located in South Amboy, New Jersey; (3) Sunnyside Yard, located in Long Island, New York; and (4) Wilmington Shops and related facilities, located in Wilmington, Delaware. During the period when Penn Central operated these rail yards, it owned and used passenger rail cars with transformers manufactured by GE. APU claims the GE transformers contaminated the rail yards by leaking polychlorinated biphenyls (“PCBs”).

Following this Court's ruling on GE's Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 60) and GE's Motion for Summary Judgment on Statute of Limitations Issues (Doc. 151), APU's remaining claims are as follows: Count I—cost recovery and declaratory relief under CERCLA § 107(a) based on removal activity at the Sunnyside and Wilmington site; Count III—contribution and declaratory judgment under CERCLA § 113(f) based on certain costs incurred at the Paoli site; Count IV—contractual indemnification relating to the Silverliner IV cars; Count V—contractual indemnification relating to the Jersey Arrow II cars; Count VII—contribution under the PHSCA based on certain costs incurred at the Paoli site; Count XI—trespass at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XII—negligence at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XIII—private nuisance at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XIV—public nuisance at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XV—abnormally dangerous activity at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XVI—strict liability at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XVII negligent design at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XVIII—negligent manufacture at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XIX—failure to warn at the Wilmington site under Delaware law; Count XXII—punitive damages; and Count XXIII—assignment of SEPTA, Amtrak and Conrail's claims.

APU's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment is only directed toward the contractual indemnification claims. These claims are based upon two contracts which date back to 1971. The first contract was between GE and the New Jersey Department of Transportation (“NJDOT”) for 70 Jersey Arrow II rail cars (“the NJDOT Contract”). The second contract was between GE and Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (“SEPTA”) for 144 Silverliner IV rail cars (“the SEPTA Contract”). Under separate lease agreements with NJDOT and SEPTA, Penn Central agreed to use the rail cars to service commuter rail lines in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (See, e.g., Doc 95–1, at 3.)

Under the NJDOT and SEPTA Contracts, GE agreed to “design, construct, test, deliver and guarantee” the rail cars. Both Contracts included an indemnity provision which is virtually identical ² and provides:

... Contractor [GE] hereby assumes all risk and responsibility and shall indemnify and save ... the Railroad [Penn Central] harmless from any and all claims, suits, demands, and causes of action of any kind or nature whatsoever, and expenses incidental thereto, including, but not limited to counsel fees, for the loss of life or property or injury or damage to the person or property of any person or corporation whatsoever, (including, but without limitation of the foregoing, the person or property of the Contractor, or its Subcontractors, [SEPTA/NJDOT] and/or the Railroad and their respective officers agents, or employees), caused by the Contractor in the manufacture, testing, inspection or repair of any of the cars, or any part thereof, whether occurring prior to or after acceptance of such car by [SEPTA/NJDOT] from the Contractor and whether occurring on or off the premises of the Railroad....The Contractor shall further assume all liability for loss by reason of neglect or violation of federal, state or local laws, ordinances or regulations, and all work necessary to conform to said laws, ordinances, and regulations is included in this Contract.

(Doc. 95–1, at 59–60; Doc. 95–2, at 125–27.) APU claims that these indemnification provisions unambiguously require GE to indemnify APU, as successor to “the Railroad,” for all costs associated with PCB contamination caused by the Jersey Arrow II and Silverliner IV rail cars.

II. LEGAL STANDARD

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(a) provides that summary judgment is proper “if the movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.” The moving party has the burden of showing an absence of evidence to support the non-moving party's case. Celotex Corp. v. Catrett, 477 U.S. 317, 325, 106 S.Ct. 2548, 91 L.Ed.2d 265 (1986). Once the moving part has met its burden of production, the non-moving party cannot rest on his pleadings, but must present significant probative evidence in support of his complaint to defeat the motion for summary judgment. Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248–49, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 91 L.Ed.2d 202 (1986). The mere existence of a scintilla of evidence to support the non-moving party's position will be insufficient; the evidence must be sufficient for a jury to reasonably find in favor of the non-moving party. Id. at 252, 106 S.Ct. 2505.

III. ANALYSIS

The parties are in agreement that New Jersey and Pennsylvania law govern APU's contractual indemnification claims.³ The parties also recognize that the law of both states provides that unambiguous contracts are interpreted by the court as a matter of law. Ins. Adjustment Bureau, Inc. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 588 Pa. 470, 905 A.2d 462, 469 (2006); Cooper River Plaza East, L.L.C. v. Briad Group, 359 N.J.Super. 518, 820 A.2d 690, 696 (N.J.Super.Ct.App.Div.2003); see also Englert v. The Home Depot, 389 N.J.Super. 44, 911 A.2d 72, 77 (N.J.Super.Ct.App.Div.2006) (“Indemnity contracts are interpreted in accordance with the rules governing the construction of contracts generally.”).

GE argues that APU is not entitled to summary judgment for the following reasons: (1) APU's claims are untimely under Ohio's savings statute; (2) APU assigned its rights under the NJDOT and SEPTA contracts to Conrail in 1976, and therefore has no standing to assert a contract claim; (3) in the alternative, if APU did not assign its rights, its claims are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania under the Consummation Order that court issued in 1978 in the Penn Central bankruptcy proceeding; (4) the claims are subject to mandatory arbitration, which APU has not pursued; (5) the plain language of the indemnity provision makes clear that it does not apply to in-service events such as transformer fluid leaks; and (6) as with the CERCLA claims, APU's recoveries from collateral sources offset any possible recovery on a contract theory.

A. Timeliness

In ruling on GE's Motion for Summary Judgment on Statute of Limitations Issues,this Court concluded that the contracts are governed by the general statute of limitations for indemnity contracts under Pennsylvania and New Jersey law. (Doc. 151, at 51, 53.) Under that law, APU argues its contractual indemnification claims did not accrue until the final payments were made for clean up costs at the sites, and therefore the claims are timely under Pennsylvania's four-year statute of limitations and New Jersey's six-year statute of limitations.⁴

However, GE notes that Ohio's borrowing statute, Ohio Revised Code 2305.03(B) requires this Court to apply any Ohio statute of limitation if Ohio provides a shorter period of limitation than Pennsylvania or New Jersey law. GE argues that under Ohio's savings statute, Ohio Revised Code § 2305.19(A), a party has one year to re-file any claim that is dismissed for a reason other than the merits. GE points out that APU filed suits against GE for indemnification in 1990 and 1994. (See Docs. 104–7 & 104–8.)

APU responds that Section 2305.19(A) is not applicable because APU's prior claims were asserted during the Paoli Yard tort litigation, which involved individual plaintiffs seeking personal injury tort damages allegedly caused by being exposed to PCBs while living near or working at the Paoli Yard. APU explains that its contingent claims against GE were very limited.

Ohio's savings statute, Ohio Revised Code § 2305.19, provides:

In any action that is commenced or attempted to be commenced, if in due time a judgment for the plaintiff is reversed or if the plaintiff fails otherwise than upon the merits, the plaintiff or, if the plaintiff dies and the cause of action survives, the plaintiff's representative may commence a new action within one year after the date of the reversal of the judgment or the plaintiff's failure otherwise than upon the merits or within the period of the original applicable statute of limitations, whichever occurs...