The Supremes Confirm Landlord has to clean up tenant’s mess

The United States Supreme Court declined to hear a case questioning whether a tenant has to reimburse the landlord for the cleanup of hazardous waste it left behind.  Therefore, the opinion of the lower court stands as the rule of law.

Intracel was a pharmaceutical company that held a ten year lease.  It stopped paying rent on the property it used for offices and a lab.  They moved out at the demand of the landlord, and four months later filed bankruptcy.  The landlord had to clean up the waste left behind, which included biological waste, radioactive materials, chemicals, acids, oxygen, and equipment including incinerators and syringes.  The landlord sued on for reimbursement on the basis that the tenant committed trespass when it left behind the material.  The Maryland courts ruled against the landlord, saying the tenant was in lawful possession of the premises when it left the material.  The landlord then tried to get the Supreme Court to look at the case under a different legal theory, a private right of action under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the law that governs the treatment and disposition of hazardous waste. 

Therefore, the landlord cannot get the $500,000 back that it spent on the cleanup.

Source:  BNA Environmental Reporter, Jan.25th, 2008