Posted on 02.18.16
Landmark Aviation requests dismissal of lawsuit over environmental contamination at site near Smith Reynolds Airport
Source: http://www.journalnow.com, February 17, 2016
By: Richard Craver
A local aircraft maintenance company denies most claims in a lawsuit filed by Piedmont Advantage Credit Union for damages related to “significant environmental contamination” to a nearby building it owns.
The credit union filed the lawsuit against Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation LLC, doing business as Landmark Aviation. The lawsuit was transferred Jan. 8 to the federal court in the Middle District of North Carolina.
PACU alleges Landmark damaged the 17,532-square-foot facility at 3180 N. Liberty St. “by the knowing and unabated continued migration of oil and other hazardous substances from (its) aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facility” at 3820 N. Liberty St., a 74,568-square-foot building on a 7.93-acre site.
The defendants requested Monday a dismissal of the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning it could not be filed again.
In a twist, the defendants inserted a third-party complaint against Jim Taylor, who served as president, chief executive and operations director of Landmark during the period cited in the PACU lawsuit.
The defendants said Taylor should be held liable, if a court or jury find Landmark liable, since Taylor had management responsibilities over the Landmark facility. In that scenario, the defendants want a judgment entered against Taylor in its favor “for contribution and/or indemnity.”
According to the PACU complaint, Landmark submitted a “notice of residual petroleum” filing in September 2010 to the Forsyth County Register of Deeds “confirming its responsibility for contaminated groundwater at the Landmark site.”
PACU claims Landmark is violating the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the federal Oil Pollution and Hazardous Substances Control Act, as well as claims of private nuisance, trespass to real property and negligence to adjoining landowners. The defendants deny each claim.
The credit union requests reimbursement and punitive damages for costs and losses because of environmental contamination. It wants the court to issue a permanent injunction requiring Landmark to abate and remediate the site.
The PACU complaint said the contamination includes chlorinated solvents at levels that exceed state groundwater standards.
PACU said air tests within the 3810 N. Liberty St. building detected tricholoroethene concentrations “that according to NCDENR’s toxicologist post an unacceptable risk for PACU occupants and require remediation.”
The defendants acknowledge contamination has occurred on its property and that it is cooperating with N.C. Department of Environmental Quality on remediation the property. It said it is cooperating with the department’s investigation of the PACU property, but deny that they “knowingly permitted any migration of contaminants onto the PACU property.”
The 3820 N. Liberty facility was bought from Piedmont Hawthorne for $700,000 by the Airport Commission of Forsyth County in January 2014.
Mark Davidson, director of Smith Reynolds Airport, said Friday that when the airport commission bought the property, “both parties included language where Landmark/Piedmont Hawthorne is still responsible for environmental clean-up.”
PACU moved its headquarters in July 2013 to the corner of Stratford and Burke Mill roads, serving as a 40,000-square-foot anchor in the 21½-acre Piedmont Advantage Park. Officials had no comment when asked whether the contamination issue played a role in its headquarters move.
The credit union said it has been unsuccessful since August 2014 in trying to sell the site because of the contamination issues. The property value is listed as $735,600, with the land valued at $172,867, according to Forsyth Register of Deeds.
PACU said it has requested that Landmark provide indemnification to any potential buyer of 3810 N. Liberty, but the company has refused.
The defendants said they have refused two requests to buy the PACU property, “especially in light of the exorbitant sums that PACU sought to extract from Landmark Aviation … such sums being far beyond the reasonable market value.”
