Barrier Industries was a company that manufactured janitorial chemicals at a facility in Port Jervis, NY from 1978-1993. During that time, the company had numerous spills of hazardous waste. In June of 1992, Barrier began to file for bankruptcy, and by December of 1993, the building it was in was condemned by local authorities and shut down. Within a month, in late January 1994, the EPA detected the spills and determined that the site needed to be cleaned. This cleanup commenced on February 15, 1994, which resulted in the costs of this dispute. The former head of Barriers, Kurt Wasserman, tried to claim that the spills had not been his former company's fault with an "Act of God" claim, as well as a third-party action against Westinghouse Remediation Services before eventually filing for bankruptcy himself-he had put the majority of his assets in his newly (and conveniently) divorced wife's name. The Southern District Court of New York nullified this agreement with his new ex-wife, and Wasserman was thus held accountable. This case demonstrates the EPA's example of finding liability with a spill, despite a company's financial status.