From the News Group:
In the news once again, from the 1/11/2008 South Bend Tribune:
Copied and pasted
Court tackles Studebaker cleanup
At issue is whether city filed suit in time.
By JEFF PARROTT
Tribune Staff Writer
The Indiana Supreme Court must decide what the General Assembly meant
by "retroactive application" when it passed a 1998 environmental
cleanup law.
At stake is $15 million to $20 million the city of South Bend expects
to spend cleaning up the former Studebaker site for private
redevelopment as a light industrial park. Under a 2003 lawsuit, the
city is trying to recoup its costs from Cooper Industries, a company
the city alleges is Studebaker's corporate successor.
The state's high court heard oral arguments Thursday from attorneys
for the city and Cooper Industries.
Senior redevelopment specialist Ann Kolata, who has devoted years to
finding funding for the Studebaker Corridor project, said it's an
important case for the city.
"Just the fact the Supreme Court took the case, we have some high
expectations ... we think it went pretty well today," Kolata said,
declining to comment further on pending litigation.
The 25-block, 104-acre site lies just south of the downtown area. In
his arguments before the five justices, Cooper Industries attorney Tom
Heiden traced the site's history back to 1852, when a blacksmith shop
operated there. The Studebaker brothers made wagons during the Civil
War era, produced some of the first automobiles in the early 1900s,
churned out military vehicles and parts during the world wars, and
finally, built more cars there until Studebaker's closure in 1963.
Cooper Industries, which in 2004 merged with McGraw-Edison,
Studebaker's liability insurance carrier, was involved in none of that
activity, Heiden told the high court.
But Indianapolis attorney George Plews, representing the city, told
the justices that Cooper Industries persuaded the Internal Revenue
Service
and Georgia state revenue officials that McGraw-Edison and Cooper were
indeed the same entity -- when that finding resulted in a $51 million
tax deduction.
But both sides focused their 20-minute arguments mainly on the statute
of limitations, and whether it applies to municipalities seeking
recovery of brownfield site cleanup costs.
Cooper Industries' Heiden argued that Indiana's Environmental Legal
Action law, one of the laws under which the city has brought suit,
required the city to file its lawsuit within six years of learning of
the contamination.
The Indiana Court of Appeals, reversing a Marion County trial court's
ruling, in April ruled for Cooper, finding that the city knew of the
contamination as early as 1991 -- 12 years before filing suit against
McGraw-Edison in 2003.
Under that rationale, the city had until 1997 to file suit. The city
has argued, and the Marion County trial court agreed, that it couldn't
have met the six-year deadline if the ELA law didn't even exist yet.
The city has argued that the statute of limitations could not start
running until 1998, when the ELA law took effect.
But in its April ruling, the appeals court cited a recent federal
district court ruling finding that the General Assembly intended for
the ELA law to be applied retroactively, meaning it is applicable to a
cause of action that began even before the law took effect.
"Under the city's position, any costs for removal of contamination, no
matter when occurred, would now be recoverable under the ELA," the
appeals court wrote. "The number of ELA suits that would follow from
such an interpretation cannot, absent a legislative expression to the
contrary, be presumed to have been within the intention of the
legislature ..."
The Supreme Court took the case under advisement and will issue its
ruling in the coming weeks.
JDP/Maryland
63 R2 SuperHawk (Caesar)
spent to date $54664,75
64 R2 GT (Sid)
spent to date $62,839.60
63 Lark 2 door
51 Commander
39 Coupe express
39 Coupe express (rod)
In the news once again, from the 1/11/2008 South Bend Tribune:
Copied and pasted
Court tackles Studebaker cleanup
At issue is whether city filed suit in time.
By JEFF PARROTT
Tribune Staff Writer
The Indiana Supreme Court must decide what the General Assembly meant
by "retroactive application" when it passed a 1998 environmental
cleanup law.
At stake is $15 million to $20 million the city of South Bend expects
to spend cleaning up the former Studebaker site for private
redevelopment as a light industrial park. Under a 2003 lawsuit, the
city is trying to recoup its costs from Cooper Industries, a company
the city alleges is Studebaker's corporate successor.
The state's high court heard oral arguments Thursday from attorneys
for the city and Cooper Industries.
Senior redevelopment specialist Ann Kolata, who has devoted years to
finding funding for the Studebaker Corridor project, said it's an
important case for the city.
"Just the fact the Supreme Court took the case, we have some high
expectations ... we think it went pretty well today," Kolata said,
declining to comment further on pending litigation.
The 25-block, 104-acre site lies just south of the downtown area. In
his arguments before the five justices, Cooper Industries attorney Tom
Heiden traced the site's history back to 1852, when a blacksmith shop
operated there. The Studebaker brothers made wagons during the Civil
War era, produced some of the first automobiles in the early 1900s,
churned out military vehicles and parts during the world wars, and
finally, built more cars there until Studebaker's closure in 1963.
Cooper Industries, which in 2004 merged with McGraw-Edison,
Studebaker's liability insurance carrier, was involved in none of that
activity, Heiden told the high court.
But Indianapolis attorney George Plews, representing the city, told
the justices that Cooper Industries persuaded the Internal Revenue
Service
and Georgia state revenue officials that McGraw-Edison and Cooper were
indeed the same entity -- when that finding resulted in a $51 million
tax deduction.
But both sides focused their 20-minute arguments mainly on the statute
of limitations, and whether it applies to municipalities seeking
recovery of brownfield site cleanup costs.
Cooper Industries' Heiden argued that Indiana's Environmental Legal
Action law, one of the laws under which the city has brought suit,
required the city to file its lawsuit within six years of learning of
the contamination.
The Indiana Court of Appeals, reversing a Marion County trial court's
ruling, in April ruled for Cooper, finding that the city knew of the
contamination as early as 1991 -- 12 years before filing suit against
McGraw-Edison in 2003.
Under that rationale, the city had until 1997 to file suit. The city
has argued, and the Marion County trial court agreed, that it couldn't
have met the six-year deadline if the ELA law didn't even exist yet.
The city has argued that the statute of limitations could not start
running until 1998, when the ELA law took effect.
But in its April ruling, the appeals court cited a recent federal
district court ruling finding that the General Assembly intended for
the ELA law to be applied retroactively, meaning it is applicable to a
cause of action that began even before the law took effect.
"Under the city's position, any costs for removal of contamination, no
matter when occurred, would now be recoverable under the ELA," the
appeals court wrote. "The number of ELA suits that would follow from
such an interpretation cannot, absent a legislative expression to the
contrary, be presumed to have been within the intention of the
legislature ..."
The Supreme Court took the case under advisement and will issue its
ruling in the coming weeks.
JDP/Maryland
63 R2 SuperHawk (Caesar)
spent to date $54664,75
64 R2 GT (Sid)
spent to date $62,839.60
63 Lark 2 door
51 Commander
39 Coupe express
39 Coupe express (rod)
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