Court Rules No Apportionment Under Connecticut Transfer Act

Entities that have signed as the Certifying Party pursuant to the Connecticut Transfer Act take note - for Transfer Act sites with multiple Certifying Parties on file with the Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP"), DEP can opt to enforce Transfer Act obligations against only one Certifying Party. Although a Certifying Party may have other avenues to recover cleanup costs from other responsible parties, a Connecticut Superior Court has ruled that asserting the special defense of apportionment in a DEP enforcement action is not one of those avenues. In Commissioner of Environmental Protection v. Sergy Company, LLC et al., No. X0684018262S, 2010 Conn. Super. LEXIS 615 (Conn. Super. Ct. March 10, 2010), the court (Stevens, J.) ruled that the harm at issue was solely caused by the defendant's failure to meet its own statutory obligations when it signed as the Certifying Party pursuant to the Transfer Act. Thus, there was no harm to apportion.