Law Commons^™

Denying Private Attorney Fee Recovery Under Cercla: Bad Law And Bad Policy, Karen M. Mcgaffey

Seattle University Law Review

This Article argues that the Ninth Circuit decision in Stanton Road was wrong. Section II of this Article describes the majority and dissenting opinions in Stanton Road. Section III argues that the majority misread Supreme Court precedent, leading it to adopt an excessively formalistic approach to statutory construction. It argues that the majority should have used traditional approaches to statutory construction and that those approaches would have produced a different result. Finally, the Article concludes by arguing that the Ninth Circuit's decision distorts the intent of Congress in enacting CERCLA and hinders private efforts to clean up hazardous waste.