United States v. Shaffer Equipment Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
11 F.3d 450 (1993)
The EPA (plaintiff) sued Shaffer Equipment Company (defendant) under CERCLA to recover cleanup costs, and during discovery it emerged that Robert Caron, the project coordinator who created the entire administrative record underlying the case, had repeatedly lied about holding a college degree, and that government attorneys Snyder and Hutchins knew of this and concealed it from opposing counsel and the court. After a hearing, the district court found the attorneys violated their duty of candor and dismissed the EPA's case with prejudice as a sanction, and the government appealed.
Whether dismissal with prejudice is an appropriate sanction for government attorneys' concealment of a key project coordinator's repeated lies about his credentials, where that coordinator created the entire administrative record underlying the case.