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Pollution Claims | Insurance Coverage Lawyer - Farella Braun + Martel
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Pollution Claims
May 31.2012
Supreme Court of California Hears

Arguments in State of California v.
Continental Insurance Co.
After waiting over three years since granting review in State of California v. Continental
Insurance Co. (previously discussed here) the Supreme Court of California heard oral arguments
in the case yesterday morning. This highly anticipated case touches on many important insurance
coverage issues; principally how liability is allocated across multiple successive policies, and
whether the limits of successive policies may be stacked. The Continental cases deals with the
State of Californias insurance coverage for environmental remediation at the Stingfellow site.
Property damage occurred over the course of many years, with many different insurance carriers
on the risk. At issue was...
Read the Article | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted in General Liability Policies, Pollution
Claims, Risk Management
March 16.2010
Preparing for a Mediation Involving

Coverage Issues
Adequate preparation is essential for any mediation, and mediations involving insurance coverage
issues are no exception. Whether the focus of the mediation is the insurance coverage dispute
http://www.farellacoveragelaw.com/pollution-claims/
06-03-2015
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itself, or whether the insurer is attending a mediation of the underlying action (with an expectation
that it will fund any settlement), the insured can and should take certain steps to ensure a more
productive session. 1) Select the right mediator Only the attorneys handling the case can judge
which mediator has the right style and temperament to handle their specific matter. An additional
consideration, however, should be whether the mediator has some...
Read the Article | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Posted in Construction Insurance, D & O, General
Liability Policies, Intellectual Property Claims, Pollution Claims, Property Insurance, Risk
Management
August 11.2009
Global Warming Litigation: New

Environmental Policies Lead To New
Coverage Issues
Global warming litigation continues, but President Obamas new environmental policies likely
will change its path. Insureds should consider their risks in light of these new policies to determine
whether their present insurance programs provide adequate coverage. We have previously
discussed coverage issues arising out of global warming litigation. Click Here; Click Here One of
the cases we addressed was Californias lawsuit against GM and Chrysler, which alleged that the
cars and trucks the two companies manufactured damaged the state by contributing to global
warming and its negative environmental consequences. See California v. General Motors Corp.,
No. 06-cv-05755 (N.D. Cal.). The...
Claims
April 17.2009
Relevant Discharge re: State of Cal. v. Lloyds

As discussed in our March 13 post, the California Supreme Court issued its much awaited decision
in State of California v. Underwriters at Lloyds of London, in which California sought insurance
coverage for court ordered environmental remediation costs at the Stringfellow Acid Pits. In
addition to reaffirming the concurrent proximate cause rule, the Court settled which discharge
courts are to analyze when applying the sudden and accidental pollution exclusion present in
many CGL policies. Pollution resulted at the acid pits, which essentially were dammed
evaporation ponds, from at least three sources: gradual seepage through the fractured rocks
beneath the unlined...
Claims
March 13.2009
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New California Supreme Court Decision

Reaffirms Concurrent Proximate Cause Rule
In Environmental Context
On Monday, March 9, 2009, the California Supreme Court issued its opinion in State of California
v. Underwriters at Lloyds London et al., S149988. The Court ruled on numerous issues, all of
which were decided favorably for insureds. This particular blog post focuses on the Courts
reaffirmation of the concurrent proximate cause rule in the environmental liability context. We
will highlight other aspects of the Underwriters ruling in future blog posts, as well as our
upcoming Client Alert. Underwriters is the latest decision involving insurance coverage disputes
arising out of environmental contamination at the Stringfellow industrial waste disposal site in...
Claims
January 09.2009
Continental Court Decision Approves

Stacking of Consecutive Policy Limits
This week, the California Court of Appeal issued a new decision regarding the stacking of
policy limits: State of California v. Continental Insurance Company, No. E041425 (Super. Ct. No.
239784). As the Continental court explained, stacking generally refers to treating multiple
policies that apply to a single loss as cumulative as a stack of coverage rather than as
mutually exclusive. Such treatment allows an insured to recover under multiple liability
insurance policies for the same occurrence. Reading the standard CGL insuring agreement in the
context of previous California Supreme Court decisions, the Continental court concluded that this
standard...
Claims
January 08.2009
Supreme Court Argument in State v.

Underwriters at Lloyd's Regarding Pollution
Exclusion
The Supreme Court heard argument today in this case, involving the Stringfellow site. Two main
issues were argued. First, what is the relevant "discharge" for purposes of the pollution exclusion's
"sudden and accidental" exception: if contaminants were placed in pits intentionally, but escaped
accidentally, does the sudden and accidental exception to the pollution exclusion apply? The
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second issue was the scope of coverage, or the allocation, for claims where there are both sudden
and gradual pollution events at the site. On the first issue, the insurers were met with a great deal
of skepticism. Justice Kennard was clearly not buying...
Claims
December 17.2008
Supreme Court to Hear Argument January 8

in State of California v. Underwriters at
Lloyd's
One issue currently before the California Supreme Court is the issue of allocation between
covered and uncovered damages where pollution at a site is partly caused by gradual pollution and
partly caused by a "sudden and accidental" event. The first case to address this, Golden Eagle
Refinery Co. v Associated International Ins. 85 Cal. App. 4th 1300 (2001), held that the burden
was on the insured to prove the sudden event caused an incremental increase in clean-up costs.
The Court of Appeals in the State of California case took a different approach, applying the
"concurrent cause" doctrine to hold that...
Claims
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Pollution Claims | Insurance Coverage Lawyer - Farella Braun + Martel

California Insurance Coverage Attorneys

Insurance Attorney Bloggers

Supreme Court of California Hears

Preparing for a Mediation Involving

Pollution Claims | Insurance Coverage Lawyer - Farella Braun + Martel

Global Warming Litigation: New

Relevant Discharge re: State of Cal. v. Lloyds

Pollution Claims | Insurance Coverage Lawyer - Farella Braun + Martel

New California Supreme Court Decision

Continental Court Decision Approves

Supreme Court Argument in State v.

Pollution Claims | Insurance Coverage Lawyer - Farella Braun + Martel

Supreme Court to Hear Argument January 8

Pollution Claims | Insurance Coverage Lawyer - Farella Braun + Martel

International Risk Management Institute

2014 FARELLA BRAUN + MARTEL LLP

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