Environmental Litigation

Even with the current, more stringent regulatory requirements, environmental pollution remains a major public concern. Homeowners still discover that their water source has been polluted by industrial dumping. Communities still suffer from the use or dumping of toxic materials, such as beryllium, lead, and asbestos. And businesses are still faced with the cost of cleaning up hazardous sites, some of which may have been polluted decades earlier by companies that are now dissolved. Raynes McCarty has been called upon to represent both individuals and businesses in a variety of litigation related to this pressing social issue.

• Tens of Millions of Dollars in Potential Insurance Coverage Restored When Sunbeam Corporation was confronted with the cost of environmental remediation on the land of companies it had acquired, it turned to its insurance carriers to help pay. The carriers turned Sunbeam down, relying on an exclusion that they had added to their policies during the early 1970's. Having lost in the trial court and in the Superior Court, Sunbeam sought out Raynes McCarty to represent it in its final chance with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Dave Binder and Arthur Raynes persuaded the Supreme Court to adopt "regulatory estoppel" as the law of Pennsylvania, to reverse the Superior Court's en banc decision, and to reinstate Sunbeam's claims against its insurers. Sunbeam Corporation v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 566 Pa. 494, 781 A.2d 1189 (2001).
• $25,000,000 Recovery for Philadelphia Schools When the Philadelphia School District needed to compel asbestos manufacturers to pay for the abatement and remediation in Philadelphia Schools, district authorities turned to Raynes McCarty; the team was led by Arthur Raynes and Harold Goodman. In order to determine which individual asbestos companies had installed asbestos in each school, the Firm dispatched a team of lawyers and paralegals throughout the city, tracking down and interviewing scores of witnesses. The case resolved for in excess of $25,000,000.
• Reinstatement of a Million Dollar Liability Policy An industrial manufacturer was told by its liability carrier that they would be denied coverage based on a broad expansion of a "pollution exclusion clause." After prior counsel lost the case to restore coverage before a federal judge, a Raynes McCarty attorney took the appeal to the Third Circuit and won a reversal, then a verdict at trial. Full coverage was restored to the manufacturer.
• Settlement for Negligent Legal Advice About Environmental Contamination A Pennsylvania company, represented by one of the largest law firms in the United States, bought a New England business without realizing or being advised that the seller's land was environmentally contaminated. When the buyer was stuck with the significant cost of environmental remediation, one of our attorneys negotiated a substantial settlement from the law firm for its failure to give proper advice.

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