In Re Robert Burns Jensen Rosemary Tooker Jensen, Debtors. California Department of Health Services v. Robert Burns Jensen Rosemary Tooker Jensen
Opinion
Opinion
The California Department of Health Services (“California DHS”) appeals the decision of the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel that its claim against Robert Burns Jensen and Rosemary Tooker Jensen for cleanup of hazardous waste at the Jensen’s former business property was discharged in the couple’s bankruptcy. We have jurisdiction over California DHS’s timely appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 158 (d) (1988). We affirm.
I. Facts
A decade ago, the Jensens owned a closely-held corporation called the Jensen Lumber Co. (“JLC”) and briefly operated its lumber business. On December 2,1983, JLC filed a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition; the company had been in business only since May 1983.
Several weeks after the petition was filed, on January 25, 1984, an inspector from the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (“California Water Board”) visited the inactive JLC site and noticed a large, cinder-block tank. The tank contained about 5,000 gallons of a lumber fungicide. JLC had used the “dip tank” and fungicide solution to treat the lumber it processed. The solution contained toxic chlorinated phenols (including pentachlorophenal, or “PCP”).