Environmental Law Commons^™

The Third-Party Defense To Hazardous Waste Liability: Narrowing The Contractual Relationship Exception, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This article focuses on one of the defenses to CERCLA liability, specifically, the third-party defense set forth in section 107(b)(3) of the Act [CERCLA § 107(b)(3), 42 U.S.C. § 9607(b)(3) (1982)] ... The particular concern of this article is with the meaning of the contractual relationship exception contained within the third-party defense provision. Although a partial definition of the term "contractual relationship" was added by the 1986 CERCLA amendments, this exception, if misapplied, could make the already narrow third-party defense overly narrow. Potential for such misapplication by the courts is present because the contractual relationship exception remains inadequately defined even …