Court Says Cost of Identifying Liable Parties Is Recoverable Only When Linked to Cleanup.

The article presents the case BNSF Railway Co. v. California. According to the court's decision, costs spent on identifying a contaminated site's potentially responsible parties are recoverable under the superfund law. BNSF and Union Pacific Railroad Co. were not able to show their identification costs. The court held that the identification costs were litigation expenses not recoverable under Key Tronic Corp.