Source: http://triblive.com, October 23, 2012
By: Tory N. Parrish
The value of claims filed as a result of an asphalt spill on the Pennsylvania Turnpike last year has more than doubled to $1.7 million since June.
Attorney Thomas Frampton, the court-appointed special master for the case in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, has received 616 damage claims from those affected by the spill and/or their insurance carriers, he wrote in a status report released on Tuesday.
As of June 27, the date of his first status report, he had received 217 claims worth $670,000, said Frampton, who is with the law firm Goehring, Rutter & Boehm, Downtown.
As a special master, Frampton is tasked with collecting damage claims, recommending how they should be paid and presenting status reports to the court every 120 days.
None of the claims has been paid, he said.
“We don’t have the final number of claims yet, and we don’t know exactly what the pool of money is yet,” he said.
On Nov. 22, 2011, a truck owned by MTS Transport LLC of Stevensville, Md., deposited a sticky asphalt flux over a 40-mile stretch of the eastbound side of the turnpike between the New Castle and Allegheny Valley exits.
Hartford, Conn.-based Travelers Indemnity Co., which is MTS’ primary insurer, has posted the $1 million it owed under the trucking company’s primary policy, but said in court documents that the claims will exceed that amount.
MTS has an excess liability policy of $4 million with Hallmark Specialty Insurance Co., a subsidiary of Hallmark Financial Services Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas. It claimed in court that it wasn’t obligated to pay any of the claims because the spill would fall under a “pollution exclusion” clause.
Judge Joy Flowers Conti ruled in September that Hallmark would have to cover the claims, but there hasn’t been a determination of whether Hallmark will file an appeal, Frampton said.
When Travelers filed its original complaint in December, it estimated that there were about 900 damage claims. Some of those people might have decided not to pursue formal claims, Frampton said.
Travelers, Hallmark and MTS officials could not be reached for comment.