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December 17.2008

Supreme Court to Hear Argument January 8 in State of California v. Underwriters at Lloyd's

by John Green

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 there was coverage as long as the sudden event was a contributing factor to the contamination at the site, a much lower burden for the insured.

The California Supreme Court granted review, and has just set argument in the case for January 8 at 9:00 am in San Francisco. The argument should be interesting. We will keep you posted.

Posted in General Liability Policies, Pollution Claims | Permalink

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Comments

Very nice site!

Posted by: John1387 | Dec 31, 2008 4:15:56 AM

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