Lewis Operating Corp. v. United States
United States District Court for the Central District of California
533 F.Supp.2d 1041 (2007)
A 1943 Air Force plane crash left military ammunition buried on land Lewis Operating Corp. (plaintiff) later bought in 2002 to develop commercially, after Lewis's environmental consultant found no evidence of contamination beforehand. While moving crash-site soil to fill sites, Lewis's own workers uncovered the ammunition, and after state investigators later removed ammunition from soil at three different fill sites, Lewis spent $3.2 million on the resulting cleanup. Lewis sued the United States (defendant) under CERCLA to recover those costs, claiming innocent-landowner status.
Whether a party can be an innocent landowner under CERCLA if the party contributed to the contamination of the land.