PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) today heralded the decision by Judge Joel Slomsky of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania overturning a federal jury’s verdict that held four employees of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) liable for $6.5 million in damages for doing their jobs, calling the decision “a victory for justice.”
Jan Jarrett, PennFuture’s president and CEO said, “This case was wrong from the start, since the DEP employees were acting for the public, protecting the public interests, and were doing the jobs the citizens asked of them. Today’s decision corrects the jury’s decision which was a major miscarriage of justice, and means that polluters cannot succeed in attacking our environmental regulators and the laws they enforce.
“These officials were simply doing their jobs – responding to citizen complaints and preparing an air quality permit,” continued Jarrett. “When public officials do their job, the law protects them from claims of personal liability. The original jury decision turned that law on its head, and today’s decision corrects it.
“If the Court had not ruled this way, Pennsylvania’s environment and economy would have suffered greatly,” continued Jarrett. “Polluters would have threatened personal lawsuits against DEP officials at every turn. DEP's best and brightest would find jobs elsewhere, where they would not face such harassment. And those who remained might have ducked the demanding task of saying 'no' to pollution, leading to weak permits and lax enforcement.
“We congratulate DEP and Acting Secretary Michael Krancer for standing up for our laws, and for the public servants who enforce them,” concluded Jarrett.
The case, MFS, INC. v THOMAS A. DILAZARO, et al., was decided by a jury on February 17, 2010. DEP appealed the decision with today’s result. A copy of today’s decision is available on PennFuture’s website.
PennFuture is a statewide public interest membership organization that advances policies to protect and improve the state’s environment and economy. PennFuture has experts and attorneys, outreach workers and communicators, lobbyists and educators, all working with local groups and citizens across the state to adopt and enforce great public policy. Our motto is “Every environmental victory grows the economy.” The Philadelphia Inquirer called PennFuture the state’s “leading environmental advocacy organization.”