State v. Atlantic Richfield Company

¶ 1. This interlocutory appeal calls upon us to decide whether 12 V.S.A. § 462 creates an exemption from the general six-year limitation for the State of Vermont’s claims against a host of defendants for generalized injury to state waters as a whole due to groundwater contamination from gasoline additives. On the basis of the statute of limitations, the trial court dismissed the State’s claims insofar as they are predicated on generalized injury to state waters as a whole. On appeal, the State argues that § 462 exempts the State’s claims from the statute of limitations, and, alternatively,…