In a victory for common sense, the North Carolina Court of
Appeals rejected a landowner's attempt to recover $1.4 million
in damages for environmental cleanup costs for a property that
would only have had a value of $108,500 in the absence of the
contamination – given that the landowner had no legal
obligation to clean up the contamination. BSK Enterprises, Inc. v. Beroth Oil Co., No.
COA15-189 (N.C. Ct. App. March 2, 2016). The Court of Appeals
concluded "where the cost of remediation greatly exceeds or is
disproportionate to the diminution in value of the property, the
measure of damages should be the diminution in value cause by the
contamination." Slip op. 2.
In Beroth, a release from an underground storage tank on
Beroth's property contaminated groundwater, which then migrated
onto B.S.K.'s property. The North Carolina Department of
Environmental Quality ("DEQ") supervised an investigation
of the release and approved a cleanup strategy in which Beroth
would
