ABSTRACT
The toxic tort claimant will lodge claims against one or more defendants on multiple causes of action. For example, a homeowner claiming that water runoff from a nearby asphalt-producing facility has polluted her pond might bring claims in nuisance, trespass and negligence. A defendant's actions resulting in contamination or pollution of another's property, or the injurious exposure of another to a toxic chemical or substance, may give rise to a claim in private nuisance. Where defendant's conduct interferes with or harms a right common to the larger public, a public authority may bring suit for public nuisance. Plaintiff may also frame a claim in continuing trespass, which, upon sufficient evidence, "confers on the possessor of the land an option to maintain a succession of actions based on a theory of continuing trespass, or to treat the continuation of the thing on the land as an aggravation of the original trespass".
