{"id":899566,"date":"2022-02-02T14:22:13","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T21:22:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=899566"},"modified":"2022-02-02T14:22:24","modified_gmt":"2022-02-02T21:22:24","slug":"pollution-exclusion-landmark-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/pollution-exclusion-landmark-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Landmark Montana Supreme Court Decision Series: Pollution Exclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Lorelie S. Masters, Patrick M. McDermott and Rachel E. Hudgins | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.huntoninsurancerecoveryblog.com\/2022\/01\/articles\/general-liability\/landmark-montana-supreme-court-decision-series-pollution-exclusion\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Hunton Andrews Kurth<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In this post in the Blog\u2019s\u00a0Landmark Montana Supreme Court Decision Series, we discuss the court\u2019s ruling on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/tradition-pollution-exclusion-applies-traditional-environmental-contamination-new-cases-washington-connecticut\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pollution exclusion<\/a> in\u00a0<em>National Indemnity Co. v. State<\/em>, 499 P.3d 516 (Mont. 2021).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The exclusion at issue was the standard qualified pollution exclusion used in some CGL policies in the mid-1970s. It excluded coverage for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>bodily injury or property damage arising out of the discharge, dispersal, release or escape of smoke, vapors, soot, fumes, acids, alkalis, toxic chemicals, liquids or gases, waste materials or other irritants, contaminants or pollutants into or upon land, the atmosphere or any water course or body of water; but this exclusion does not apply if such discharge, dispersal, release or escape is sudden and accidental.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Id.<\/em>&nbsp;at 539. Recall that Montana sought coverage for claims alleging it had failed to warn claimants of the dangers of asbestos exposures to workers at a mine operated by W. R. Grace. Because Montana was not involved in the use of asbestos, the parties disputed whether this exclusion applied. Montana contended the exclusion applied only when Montana was the alleged polluter. The insurer claimed the exclusion applied to all pollution, regardless of who polluted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Hunton brief for United Policyholders (UP), UP highlighted the insurance industry\u2019s representations to state regulators about the pollution exclusion. Those representations supported that the pollution exclusion was only a clarification of the coverage previously existing in the standard CGL form and that the exclusion was only meant to bar coverage for actual polluters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Montana Supreme Court ruled in favor of the State. It found that the insurer\u2019s position would result in an \u201cabsurd or nonsensical coverage result\u201d because it \u201cwould be covered for liability arising from a failure to warn of a \u2018sudden and accidental\u2019 discharge\u2014a seeming impossibility, given that sudden accidents necessarily occur without warning\u2014but would not be covered for liability arising from a failure to warn of an ongoing, intentional discharge.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id.<\/em>\u00a0at 540. Thus, \u201capplying the exclusion to the discharges of third parties is not a reasonable reading of the provision.\u201d\u00a0<em>Id.<\/em>\u00a0And so \u201conly the State\u2019s reading is reasonable,\u201d and the Court concluded that the exclusion did not bar coverage.\u00a0<em>Id<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes &#8211; please call Advise &amp; Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email <a href=\"mailto:experts@adviseandconsult.net\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lorelie S. Masters, Patrick M. McDermott and Rachel E. Hudgins | Hunton Andrews Kurth In this post in the Blog\u2019s\u00a0Landmark Montana Supreme Court Decision Series, we discuss the court\u2019s ruling on the pollution exclusion in\u00a0National Indemnity Co. v. State, 499 P.3d 516 (Mont. 2021). The exclusion at issue was the standard qualified pollution exclusion used&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/pollution-exclusion-landmark-decision\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Landmark Montana Supreme Court Decision Series: Pollution Exclusion<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[9895,12,9293,530],"class_list":["post-899566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-construction-2","tag-advise-consult","tag-construction","tag-montana","tag-pollution-exclusion","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Landmark Montana Supreme Court Decision Series: Pollution Exclusion - Advise &amp; 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