Westwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. National Fuel Gas Distribution Corporation

Westwood Pharmaceuticals (plaintiff) bought contaminated land from National Fuel Gas (defendant), which had itself bought the land from Iroquois Gas under a land-sale contract; after discovering the contamination, Westwood sued National for cleanup costs, and National invoked CERCLA's third-party defense, blaming Iroquois. Westwood moved for summary judgment arguing that National's contractual relationship with Iroquois categorically barred that defense; the district court denied the motion, and Westwood appealed.

Whether a landowner is foreclosed from asserting CERCLA's third-party defense merely because it has a contractual relationship with the third party whose act or omission caused the contamination.