Current through Pa Acts 2024-53, 2024-56 through 2024-92
Section 6027.6 - Limitation of fiduciary environmental liability(a) Scope of fiduciary liability.--Any person who acts or has acted as a fiduciary to another person shall not be liable in its personal or individual capacity under the environmental acts or common law equivalents to the department or to any other person by virtue of the fact that the fiduciary provides or provided such services unless:(1) during the time when the fiduciary services were actively provided, an event occurred which constituted a release of regulated substances according to the environmental acts at the time of such event;(2) the fiduciary had the express power and authority to control property which was the cause of or the site of such release as part of actively providing services; and(3) the release was caused by an act or omission which constituted gross negligence or willful misconduct of the fiduciary according to the law or standard practices at the time of the release.(b) Limitation of fiduciary liability.--Liability under this act shall be limited to only the cost for a response action which is directly attributable to the fiduciary's activities as specified in this section. Under subsection (a)(2), control of property shall be deemed to be in the lessee and not the lessor for leased property. No fiduciary shall be liable for any response action if such response action arises from a release of regulated substances which occurred prior to or commences before and continues after the fiduciary takes action as specified in subsection (a). Notwithstanding the foregoing, a fiduciary shall be responsible for that portion of a response action which is directly attributable to exacerbating a release. A release of regulated substances discovered in the course of conducting an environmental due diligence shall be presumed to be a prior and continuing release on the property.(c) Estate claims.--Nothing in this section shall prevent claims against the fiduciary in its representative capacity.1995, May 19, P.L. 33, No. 3, § 6, effective in 60 days.