After 25 years of litigation over contamination from the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Colorado, a federal appeals court has ruled that Dow Chemical Co. and Rockwell International Corp. should be on the hook for nuisance claims by nearby property owners that could total in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
In an unusual move, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ordered the lower court to reverse its ruling and enter judgment for the plaintiffs, instead of sending the case back for reconsideration. The court’s move was prompted in part by the extraordinary delay in resolving this case, with the court noting the “titanic” amount of time and expense it has taken up, including a 2006 trial. “We can imagine only injustice flowing from any effort to gin up the machinery of trial for a second pass over terrain it took 15 years for the first trial to mow through,” wrote Judge Neil Gorsuch for the majority.
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