Acknowledgement to Ironshore Environmental The hospitalization cost of three U.S. waterborne diseases comes to more than $500 million annually, federal health officials say. Study authors Michael Beach of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says healthcare costs for three common waterborne diseases — Legionnaires’ disease, cryptosporidiosis and giardiasis — amount to $539 million annually. Using […]

Acknowledgement to Ironshore Environmental BY DOUGLAS HANKS III dhanks@herald.com The developer of Miami’s mammoth Four Seasons tower is facing millions of dollars in lawsuits over a mold outbreak at a similar high-end condominium complex in Washington, D.C. Millennium Partners is wrapping up an extensive clean-up and relocation effort at its new Ritz-Carlton project in Washington, […]

Acknowledgement to Ironshore Environmental A Hawaii judge approved a $1.8 million class action settlement, which would provide compensation to Hilton Hawaiian Village guests who were exposed to toxic mold in Kalia Tower Guest Rooms in June and July of 2002. According to the class action toxic mold claim, the hotel was aware of the mold’s […]

Florida real estate developer St. Joe Co. is suing Halliburton Co. over its role in the rig explosion that led to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. St. Joe states that Halliburton, which was responsible for encasing BP PLC’s subsea well in cement, ignored safety procedures and didn’t properly manage the cementing […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM Solvent contamination was discovered in the groundwater at an industrial park where an XL insured’s adhesive facility had closed and ceased operations. The insured facility had operated a hot metal adhesives plant at that location. A claim was made by the state’s Department of Environmental Protection “DEP” for impact […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM A claim was made by a tenant of and against an XL insured real estate holding company. The claim was for the presence of microbial (mold) growth in two warehouses on an insured property. THE RESPONSE XL’s environmental claims counsel retained an analytical forensics firm on the insured’s behalf […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM A potential buyer of an XL insured’s property conducted a due diligence investigation, revealing several areas of hydrocarbon contamination in the soil. Based on these conditions, the sale of the property fell through. Subsequently, a geophysical survey identified the existence of a previously unknown, leaking underground storage tank (UST) […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM Litigation was initiated by a water district against three companies for Freon contamination of a water supply well used by local residents. These three companies, in turn, filed a third-party claim against the insured as the prior owner of the facility from which the contamination discharged. Freon, which was […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM An XL insured purchased a Pollution and Remediation Legal Liability Policy for a real estate portfolio comprised of commercial sites. At one insured location, there was an incident involving a mechanical failure in the control cabinet of an elevator car. The mechanical failure of the elevator car caused a capacitor […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM An XL insured purchased a property formerly used as an independent testing facility for a wide range of aerospace, military and commercial purposes. The insured’s intention was to re-sell the property to a developer for residential housing. Litigation was filed by more than 90 nearby residents claiming bodily injury […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM An XL insured entered into a transaction to sell an office building to a developer. The property was previously used as a newspaper/printing operation. As the potential buyer of the property, the developer had environmental studies done on the property. During the studies, trichloroethylene (TCE) was discovered in the soil […]

Acknowledgement to XL Environmental THE CLAIM An XL insured facility manufactured medical diagnostic and scientific instruments for more than 50 years. Our insured was consolidating its operations and moving the facility to another of their locations. Our insured conducted a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment on the property in anticipation of selling the property. A […]