FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION AUG 01 2011
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U .S. C O U R T OF APPE ALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
HINDS INVESTMENTS, L.P., No. 10-15607
Plaintiff - Appellant, D.C. No. 1:07-cv-00703-LJO-GSA
PATRICIA MCLAUGHLIN, Trustee of
the Thomas F. Hinds and Mary Jane Hinds MEMORANDUM *
Living Trust,
Plaintiff-counter-defendant -
Appellant,
v.
ALBERT ANGIOLI; BURNELL
ANGIOLI,
Defendants,
and
MULTIMATIC CORPORATION;
MULTIMATIC DRY CLEANING
MACHINE CORPORATION;
MULTIMATIC LLC; KIRRBERG
CORPORATION; HOYT
CORPORATION; R.R. STREET & CO.,
INC.,
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
Defendants - Appellees,
TEAM ENTERPRISES, INC.,
Defendant-cross-claimant -
Appellee,
v.
CSK AUTO, INC., DBA Kragen Auto
Parts; COOPER INDUSTRIES LTD,
Third-party-defendant.
HINDS INVESTMENTS, L.P., No. 10-15951
Plaintiff - Appellant, D.C. No. 1:07-cv-00703-LJO-GSA
PATRICIA MCLAUGHLIN, Trustee of
the Thomas F. Hinds and Mary Jane Hinds
Living Trust,
Plaintiff-counter-defendant -
Appellant,
v.
ALBERT ANGIOLI; BURNELL
ANGIOLI; MULTIMATIC
CORPORATION; MULTIMATIC DRY
CLEANING MACHINE
CORPORATION; MULTIMATIC LLC;
KIRRBERG CORPORATION; HOYT
CORPORATION; R.R. STREET & CO.,
INC.,
Defendants - Appellees,
TEAM ENTERPRISES, INC.,
Defendant-cross-claimant -
Appellee,
v.
CSK AUTO, INC., DBA Kragen Auto
Parts; COOPER INDUSTRIES LTD,
Third-party-defendant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of California
Lawrence J. O’Neill, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted May 13, 2011
San Francisco, California
Before: O’SCANNLAIN and GOULD, Circuit Judges, and ST. EVE, District
Judge.**
Hinds Investments, L.P. and Patricia MacLaughlin (collectively, “Hinds”)
appeal the district court’s dismissal of their statutory and common law claims
against dry cleaning equipment manufacturers Multimatic Corporation, Multimatic
Dry Cleaning Corporation, and Multimatic successor in interest Kirrberg
Corporation; R. R. Street & Co.; and the Hoyt Corporation (collectively,
**
The Honorable Amy J. St. Eve, U.S. District Judge for the Northern
District of Illinois, sitting by designation.
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“Defendants”). Because the facts are known to the parties, we repeat them only as
necessary to explain our decision. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §
1291. We affirm.
Hinds seeks to hold Defendants liable as “arrange[rs]” under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
(“CERCLA”). See 42 U.S.C. § 9607(a)(3). The district court properly found that
Hinds’s allegations, taken as true, do not state claims for CERCLA arranger
liability against Defendants. See Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937, 1949 (2009)
(“To survive a motion to dismiss, a complaint must contain sufficient factual
matter, accepted as true, to ‘state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’”
(quoting Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 570 (2007))). Hinds has not
alleged facts showing that Defendants sold dry cleaning equipment for the purpose
of disposing of perchlorethylene or that Defendants exercised control over the
disposal process. See Team Enters., LLC v. W. Inv. Real Estate Trust, No. 10-
16916, — F.3d — (9th Cir. 2011); see also Burlington N. & Santa Fe Ry. Co. v.
United States, 129 S. Ct. 1870, 1880 (2009). Because Hinds does not assert valid
CERCLA claims against Defendants, Hinds’s claims under the California
Carpenter-Presley-Tanner Hazardous Substance Account Act also fail. See Cal.
Health & Safety Code § 25323.5(a)(1).
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The district court also did not err in dismissing Hinds’s nuisance claims
against Defendants. Under California law, defendants “who t[ake] affirmative
steps directed toward the improper discharge of solvent wastes . . . may be liable”
for nuisance. City of Modesto Redev. Agency v. Superior Court, 13 Cal. Rptr. 3d
865, 876 (Ct. App. 2004). “While liability for nuisance is broad, however, it is not
unlimited.” Id. at 872. Hinds alleges that Defendants are liable for nuisance based
on their machines’ design, but these allegations sound in products liability, for
which “the law of nuisance is not intended to serve as a surrogate.” Id. at 873; see
City of San Diego v. U.S. Gypsum Co., 35 Cal. Rptr. 2d 876, 883 (Ct. App. 1994).
Hinds also alleges that Defendants are liable because their instruction manuals
stated that waste water from their machines “must flow into an open drain,”“may
be drained into a container or piped directly to a floor drain,” or “should be piped
into an open sewer.” These waste disposal recommendations fall short of the kinds
of “affirmative acts or instructions [that] could support a finding that [D]efendants
assisted in creating a nuisance.” City of Modesto, 13 Cal. Rptr. 3d at 874; see
Team Enters., LLC, slip. op. at __.
Hinds similarly does not state a claim that satisfies the narrower definition of
trespass. See Capogeannis v. Superior Court, 15 Cal. Rptr. 2d 796, 799 (Ct. App.
1993) (“California’s definition of trespass is considerably narrower than its
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definition of nuisance.”). Hinds’s claim that Defendants advised dry cleaning
operators to dispose of waste water down the drain and into the sewer depends on
alleged physical disposal by Hinds’s tenants. As Hinds’s tenants consented to the
process whereby the contamination entered Hinds’s property, Hinds cannot bring a
claim against Defendants for trespass. See Cnty. of Santa Clara v. Atl. Richfield
Co., 40 Cal. Rptr. 3d 313, 332 (Ct. App. 2006) (“The flaw in the proposed trespass
cause of action is that plaintiffs’ pleadings indisputably establish that the
[hazardous substance] was placed on plaintiffs’ property by plaintiffs or with their
consent.” (emphasis in original)).
AFFIRMED.1
1
Hinds also appeals the dismissal of its claims brought under the Resource
Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. §§ 6901 et seq. In a separate
opinion filed simultaneously with this memorandum disposition, we affirm the
dismissal of those claims.
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