BHK Realty, LLC v. Narragansett Elec. Co.

1 Citing case

  1. Higgins v. Huhtamaki Inc.

    1:21-cv-00369-NT (D. Me. Jun. 23, 2022)   Cited 3 times
    In Higgins v. Huhtamaki, Inc., No. 1:21-cv-00369-NT, 2022 WL 2274876 (D. Me. June 23, 2022), I denied a motion to dismiss a public nuisance claim brought by a class of Maine landowners against various paper companies for damages that allegedly arose out of the disposal of wastewater and biosolids that were contaminated with PFAS.

    In terms of evaluating whether the Defendants engaged in an abnormally dangerous activity, strict liability only applies “to ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous activities . . . not to ultrahazardous or abnormally dangerous materials.” BHK Realty, LLC v. Narragansett Elec. Co., 542 F.Supp.3d 133, 138-39 (D.R.I. 2021); see In re E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. C-8 Pers. Inj. Litig., Civil Action No. 2:13-md-2433, 2015 WL 4092866, at *18-19 (S.D. Ohio July 6, 2015) (explaining that “the activity itself” must be abnormally dangerous, “not simply the conditions that result”); Read v. Corning Inc., 351 F.Supp.3d 342, 358 (W.D.N.Y. 2018) (finding that the disposal of ordinary materials that just happen to contain hazardous chemicals “is not so inherently dangerous as to give rise to strict liability.”).