Atlantic States Legal Foundation, Inc. And Rainbow Alliance for a Clean Environment, Inc. v. Pan American Tanning Corporation

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that, even where wrongful conduct could not reasonably be expected to recur, “civil penalties can still be imposed, though only for post-complaint violations and for violations that were ongoing at the time plaintiffs filed suit”
• finding that all necessary improvements to an internal pretreatment system were completed at time of ruling, and that the plant’s settlement with Sewer Board mooted citizens’ claims for injunctive relief
• “[M]ooting an entire suit based on post-complaint compliance would weaken the deterrent effect of the Act by diminishing the incentives for citizen plaintiffs to sue and by encouraging defendants to use dilatory tactics in litigation.”
• settlement entered prior to complaint date did not bar plaintiffs’ suit where it covered some, not all, of the violations alleged by the plaintiffs
• where settlement, entered prior to complaint date, covered only some, but not all, violations alleged by plaintiffs, settlement did not foreclose plaintiffs’ suit
• “We hold . . . that a defendant’s ability to show, after suit is filed but before judgment is entered, that it has come into compliance with limits on the discharge of pollutants will not render a citizen suit for civil penalties moot.”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).