Durfee v. Ocean State Steel, Inc.

OPINION

MURRAY, Justice.

This case comes before us on the appeal of the defendant, Ocean State Steel, Inc. (Ocean State), an East Providence-based steel-manufacturing plant, from a Superior Court order finding it in contempt of a prior court order entered into by consent of both Ocean State and the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management (DEM).

The facts that give rise to this dispute involve a consent agreement signed by the parties. The factors that led to the drafting of that agreement are as follows: In December 1989 DEM notified Ocean State of its air-pollution violations. In…