Source: http://www.natlawreview.com, January 8, 2015 On December 30, 2014, the Wisconsin Supreme Court decided two cases in which the central issue was whether the substance responsible for the alleged property damage constitutes a “pollutant” sufficient to invoke pollution exclusions in relevant insurance policies. In Preisler v. General Casualty Ins. Co., et al., 2014 WI 135, and Wilson […]

Read here about clean up of an fuel spill in Alaska that will be taken over by the EPA as a result of the responsible party being “financially incapable of completing the cleanup.”

Source: http://www.claimsjournal.com, January 8, 2015 By: Steven Plitt Recently, the South Carolina Court of Appeals in Precision Walls, Inc. v. Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co., 410 S.C. 175, 763 S.E.2d 598 (Ct. App. 2014), reh’g denied (Oct. 23, 2014), held that the cost to tear down and re-build a brick veneer to replace defective tape […]

Source: Ventura County Star (CA), January 7, 2015 Posted on: http://envfpn.advisen.com The owner of a Ventura County disposal plant shut down by a chemical blast in mid-November has sued its insurer, claiming Allied World Assurance Co. must cover damages up to $7 million. In the suit filed late last month, Santa Clara Waste Water Co. […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 17, 2014 By: Amy B. Briggs, Donna M. Carlton, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A New York federal court recently ruled that the discharge of ammonia at a manufacturing plant – causing a facility shutdown […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 17, 2014 By: Donna M. Carlton, Amy B. Briggs, David B. Killalea , Stephen T. Raptis, Robert H. Shulman and Susan P. White, Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP Why it matters A New York appellate court recently decided that an insurance policy’s noncumulation clause limited the amount of coverage available to a […]

Read here about a leak in Ohio at a natural gas fracking well.

Source: http://www.latimes.com, December 22, 2014 By: Kim Christensen and Tony Barboza Exide Technologies officials willfully endangered the health of more than 60 children living near the company’s troubled lead recycling plant in Vernon, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The complaint alleges that Exide officers, directors and managers intentionally […]

Source: http://www.mondaq.com, January 2, 2015 In early November, a jury found in favor of the policyholder in KeySpan Gas East Corp. v. Munich Reinsurance America Inc. et al., resolving a 17-year-old coverage dispute over pollution cleanup costs for historic manufactured gas plant sites on Long Island. Long Island Lighting Co., which sued the insurers in […]

Source: http://www.lexology.com, December 22, 2014 By: John C. Pitblado, Carlton Fields Jorden Burt A New York statute provides that liability insurers may not deny claims on grounds of late notice, unless they can show they were prejudiced by the delay. The statute applies to policies “issued or delivered” in New York. In October 2014, in Indian Harbor Ins. […]

Source: http://www.insurancejournal.com, January 5, 2015 The current estimate of net asbestos losses for the U.S. property/casualty industry remains at $85 billion, with net environmental losses estimated at $42 billion, according to a new Best’s Special Report. According to the Best’s report titled “U.S. Insurers Continue Funding of Asbestos & Environmental Liabilities, Despite Elusive End Game,” […]

Source: http://www.riverheadlocal.com, January 5, 2015 By: Civiletti One of Riverhead Water District’s newest wells is producing water contaminated with perchlorate, a chemical known to affect the human endocrine system and considered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency a “likely human carcinogen.” Well 16, located off Edwards Avenue north of Route 25 in Calverton, completed in […]