Source: http://www.philly.com, May 29, 2014
By: Jan Hefler
A New Jersey Superior Court judge has ruled the multiple owners of a thermometer factory that was turned into the Kiddie Kollege day care center without a clean-up must repay the state a total of $6.13 million for removing the contamination and demolishing the building in Franklin Township, Gloucester County four years ago.
More than 100 infants and children were exposed to mercury vapors in the day care for up to 18 months after it opened in 2004 despite the presence of dangerous levels of toxins.
Judge Anne McDonnell found Jim Sullivan Inc. and its principals, who acquired the property and converted it into the day care, and the factory owner, Philip J. Giuliano, are liable for the remediation.
Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced the judge’s decision Thursday, calling it “a very significant legal win” for the public and the state’s environmental protection efforts. “It is only fitting that the original polluters – as well as those who bought the property from them and leased it to others without doing their homework — are held accountable.” The attorney general’s office had filed a motion for summary judgement to recoup the money.
The judge decided the various owners share a total liability of $2.04 million for the clean-up, but Giuliano and his defunct thermometer manufacturing company, Accutherm Inc., are liable for an additional $4.09 million because they failed to comply with a DEP directive to clean up the site after several mercury spills were discovered.
Neither Giuliano,, nor Jim Sullivan III., the principal who rented the building to a day care, were immediately available for comment.
“In New Jersey, we hold firmly to the principle that those responsible for cleanups should be held liable for the cost of that work,” said Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin. He said: “This ruling holds particular significance because this pollution so directly impacted children and their families. . . Today, the DEP, the New Jersey Department of Health and local agencies work closely together under a state law passed as a direct result of Kiddie Kollege to protect our children in day cares and schools.”
The DEP abruptly closed Kiddie Kollege in July 2006 after tests found the toxins were still present in the building. A DEP inspector several months earlier had been surprised to see children in the building, which was on the state’s contaminated sites list and was awaiting a state-ordered clean-up.
The building had been acquired by the Sullivan family at a tax sale and was subsequently to the day care, which provided services for babies and children between eight months and 13 years. The judge said the contamination “could have been discovered by research of historical use, or examination of the DEP’s contaminated sites list, or by following their attorney’s advice to engage an environmental professional to assess the property before proceeding to foreclose the tax sale certificates.”
Class action lawsuits that were filed on behalf of the children who attended Kiddie Kollege held the state, the county, the town and the owners of the building and the day care liable, claiming they were negligent and exposed the children to mercury, which can cause brain, nervous system, and kidney problems.
All levels of government had oversight over the day care, yet they failed to prevent the business from opening without a proper cleanup, according to a 2011 decision issued by now retired Judge James Rafferty. The owners of the building also were liable, the court said, because they had failed to verify that the cleanup was done. The litigation led to a $1.5 million medical monitoring fund for the children. But since it was set up six years after the exposure, the majority of the parents decided against having their children participate.