Scribner v. Summers, 1065

• Decision Date: 21 May 1996
• Docket Number: No. 1065,D,1065
• Citation: 84 F.3d 554
• Parties: , 26 Envtl. L. Rep. 21,135 K. Douglas SCRIBNER and Laurie B. Scribner, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John M. SUMMERS, Stephen A. Summers, and Jasco-Sun Steel Treating, Inc., Defendants-Appellees. ocket 95-7739.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

Page 554

84 F.3d 554

42 ERC 1956, 26 Envtl. L. Rep. 21,135

K. Douglas SCRIBNER and Laurie B. Scribner, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. John M. SUMMERS, Stephen A. Summers, and Jasco-Sun Steel Treating, Inc., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 1065, Docket 95-7739.

United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit.

Argued March 14, 1996.

Decided May 21, 1996.

Alan J. Knauf, Rochester, NY (Robert L. Beck, Rochester, NY, of counsel), for Plaintiffs-Appellants.

Michael W. Malarney, Rochester, NY, for Defendants-Appellees.

Before CARDAMONE, WALKER, and McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judges.

McLAUGHLIN, Circuit Judge:

Douglas and Laurie Scribner appeal from a decision and order of the United States District Court for the Western District of New York (David G. Larimer, Judge ), entered after a bench trial. The district court found that the Scribners had not proven common law causes of action, under New York law, for strict liability, trespass, or private nuisance.

BACKGROUND

K. Douglas Scribner and Laurie B. Scribner own property located in the Town of Perinton, Monroe County, New York. Their property consists of about 0.8 acres, is zoned industrial, and includes a 9,500 square-foot single-story building. The Scribners use the Jasco Sun-Steel Treating, Inc., John Summers, and Stephen Summers (together, "Jasco") own and operate a steel-treating business on property bordering the Scribners' property to the north and east. A drainage "swale," basically a drainage ditch, runs downhill from Jasco's property to an area adjacent to the Scribners' property line.

property both for their family business and to rent to tenants.

Jasco is in the business of heat-treating metal objects and ball bearings to harden them for military and industrial uses. In its treatment process, Jasco uses several large concrete furnaces that leave a sludge residue containing high levels of barium chloride. From time to time, those furnaces needed to be cleaned and/or replaced. As part of that process, Jasco took the old furnaces outside the building and washed them down with water, in close proximity to the Scribners' property. In addition, from 1979 until 1990, Jasco used jackhammers to break up these old furnaces outside the building so that they could be more easily transported off site for disposal. A drain, which empties into the swale, is located on the concrete pad where the furnaces were cleaned and demolished.

In 1986, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ("NYDEC") designated barium as a hazardous waste. Several years later, the NYDEC began investigating both Jasco's facility and its other waste disposal practices. After this investigation, Jasco was indicted in New York state court for violations of the Environmental Conservation Law, and the NYDEC registered Jasco's facility as an inactive hazardous waste site. In 1994, Jasco and one of its officers were convicted and were substantially fined.

In late 1991, the Scribners decided to sell their property. In 1992, an offer was made on the property, and the Scribners began negotiations with the potential buyer. The Scribners offered to sell the property for $375,000, and the buyer countered with $335,000. Eventually, the Scribners reduced their sale price to $350,000. The buyer, however, withdrew his offer. According to the Scribners' real estate broker, the offer was withdrawn because of published reports that Jasco "had been indicted on charges of improperly disposing hazardous material." The Scribners have been unable to sell the property since that time.

The Scribners sued Jasco in the United States District Court for the Western District of New York, claiming that their property had been contaminated by Jasco's waste disposal practices. In particular, the Scribners asserted claims under the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 ("CERCLA"), 42 U.S.C. § 9601 et seq., as well as strict liability, trespass, and private nuisance claims under New York common law.

A bench trial was held before Judge David G. Larimer. After resolving a boundary dispute in the Scribners' favor, the court concluded that the Scribners' "property is contaminated because of the high levels of barium," and--most significantly--"that that chemical substance originated on [Jasco's] property." Scribner v. Summers, No. 94-CV-6094L, slip op. at 10 (W.D.N.Y. July 10, 1995).

Having found that Jasco contaminated the Scribners' property, the court granted the Scribners their response costs, pursuant to CERCLA § 107(a), 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a), as well as a declaratory judgment that Jasco is responsible for the Scribners' future response costs. It then held, however, that the Scribners had failed to prove any of their asserted common law tort causes of action.

The Scribners now appeal, arguing that the district court erred by holding that Jasco was not liable under strict liability, trespass, or private nuisance. Jasco does not appeal the district court's finding of liability under CERCLA.

We reverse and remand.

DISCUSSION

The notion that each must use his property so as not to injure his neighbor-- sic utere tuo ut alienum non laedas--may be traced at least to the Digest of Justinian. See 4 The Digest of Justinian, "De Cloacis," at 601 (Theodor Mommsen & Paul Krueger eds. & Alan Watson trans., Univ. of Pa. Press 1985) (concerning drains). It has been emphasized in Coke, see 9 Edward Coke, Institutes 59, and Blackstone, who made it axiomatic to generations of common lawyers. See 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries 217 (1765). Although a New York court has found it "utterly useless as a legal maxim," Auburn & Cato Plank-Road Co. v. Douglass, 9 N.Y. 444, 446 (1854), its core value continues to permeate modern property law.

The Scribners contend that the district court erred by holding that Jasco was not liable under the tort-law theories of trespass, private nuisance, or strict liability. We agree with the Scribners as to trespass and nuisance, but take no position on the strict liability theory.

I. Standard of Review

"Following a bench trial, we may not set aside findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, unless they are clearly erroneous." Travellers Int'l, A.G. v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 41 F.3d 1570, 1574 (2d Cir.1994). The district court's application of those facts to draw conclusions of law, however, is subject to de novo appellate review. Id. at 1575 (citation omitted). This de novo standard "is equally applicable to so called mixed questions of law and fact." Id. (citation omitted).

II. Trespass

The Scribners maintain that Jasco trespassed on their property because of the migration or leaching of barium particles across Jasco's property onto the Scribners' property. We agree.

Under New York law, trespass is the intentional invasion of another's property. See Ivancic v. Olmstead, 66 N.Y.2d 349, 352, 497 N.Y.S.2d 326, 488 N.E.2d 72 (1985), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1117, 106 S.Ct. 1975, 90 L.Ed.2d 658 (1986); Phillips v. Sun Oil Co., 307 N.Y. 328, 331, 121 N.E.2d 249 (1954); see also New York State Nat'l Org. for Women v. Terry, 886 F.2d 1339, 1361 (2d Cir.1989), cert. denied, 495 U.S. 947, 110 S.Ct. 2206, 109 L.Ed.2d 532 (1990). To be liable, the trespasser "need not intend or expect the damaging consequences of his intrusion[;]" rather, he need only "intend the act which amounts to or produces the unlawful invasion." Phillips, 307 N.Y. at 331, 121 N.E.2d 249; see New York State Nat'l Org. for Women, 886 F.2d at 1361. The intrusion itself "must at least be the immediate or inevitable consequence of what [the trespasser] willfully does, or which he does so negligently as to amount to willfulness." Phillips, 307 N.Y. at 331, 121 N.E.2d 249; see also Ivancic, 66 N.Y.2d at 352, 497 N.Y.S.2d 326, 488 N.E.2d 72.

There is a body of law on trespass claims arising from the movement of noxious liquids from one property to another. The New York Court of Appeals has held that:

even when the polluting material has been deliberately put onto, or into, defendant's land, he is not liable for his neighbor's damage therefrom, unless he (defendant) had good reason to know or expect that subterranean and other conditions were such that there would be passage from defendant's to plaintiff's land.

Phillips, 307 N.Y. at 331, 121 N.E.2d 249 (emphasis added).

Although the district court cited the Phillips case as the appropriate standard for a cause of action in trespass, it held that the Scribners had failed to prove the requisite intent on the part of Jasco:

Although officers of defendants were aware that barium chloride was created by its manufacturing process, barium was not put on the state's hazardous waste list until 1986. This barium material was apparently generated from operation on defendants' site, most likely in connection with the cleaning and destruction of old furnaces and equipment used in the business. There is no evidence, however, that defendants intended the water used in that cleaning process to enter plaintiffs' land. In fact, there was no proof that anyone ever observed water running off of defendants' property onto plaintiffs' property. If water that had been contaminated seeped into the soil on defendants' property and thereafter migrated through the soil onto plaintiffs' property, there is no proof that defendants intended that to occur or that defendants' acts were so reckless that they should be charged with that consequence.

Scribner, No. 94-CV-6094L, slip op. at 22 (emphasis added).

We find this holding erroneous. In determining whether Jasco had the requisite intent for trespass under New York law, the issue is not, as the district court held, whether "defendants intended the [contaminated] water used in [its] cleaning process to enter plaintiffs' land." Id. Rather, under Phillips, the appropriate standard is whether Jasco: (i) "intend[ed] the act which amounts to or produces the unlawful invasion," and (ii) "had good reason to...