{"id":900554,"date":"2022-11-04T10:34:54","date_gmt":"2022-11-04T16:34:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/?p=900554"},"modified":"2022-11-04T10:35:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T16:35:02","slug":"construction-dust-is-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myconstructionexpert.com\/blog\/construction-dust-is-pollution\/","title":{"rendered":"Construction Dust is Pollution?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Heather Howell Wright | Bradley<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent insurance coverage decision from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia highlights the difficulties of court interpretation of insurance policies and serves as a warning for contractors regarding application of the Absolute Pollution Exclusion<\/a> in a General Liability Policy.\u00a0 The case involves injuries sustained by Joel Edgar Love Jr. arising out of construction dust.\u00a0Love Lang v. FCCI Insurance Company<\/em>, 530 F.Supp.3d 1299 (N.D. Ga 2021).\u00a0\u00a0 The procedural history of this case is complicated by the fact that there were several different actions filed with the ultimate insurance coverage issue determination being made in an action where Mr. Love\u2019s Estate was pursuing coverage from a general contractor\u2019s insurer following an agreed order against the contractor.\u00a0 For purposes of the instant analysis, we will not focus on the intricacies of the procedural history of the various cases but will focus on the facts of the underlying injury, the policy language at issue, and the ultimate coverage decision by the Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August 2013, a construction crew removed bricks from the fa\u00e7ade of an apartment building apartment unit by drilling a row of holes in the grout between the bricks, and then cutting the holes together to remove the brick. The work caused clouds of dust to enter the apartments.  It was undisputed that the dust \u201cdid not contain any toxic or particularly harmful material, the dust did not contain within it any particular known irritants, contaminants, toxins or poisons, and the dust did not contain any lead or asbestos.\u201d It was also undisputed that exposure to the dust \u201cwould not necessarily be dangerous and would not automatically result in injury to an individual with healthy lungs.\u201d  Mr. Love, however, did not have healthy lungs; he had end-stage emphysema, and Mr. Love was hospitalized after the construction work outside his apartment produced clouds of dust that accumulated in his unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Love complained to the workers about the dust and its effect on his health, and Mr. Love sued the building owner and the construction company, in state court. The construction company was insured by Defendant FCCI Insurance Company (\u201cFCCI\u201d) but FCCI denied coverage based on the Policy\u2019s \u201cTotal Pollution Exclusion,\u201d which provided:  \u201cThis insurance does not apply to: (1) \u2018Bodily injury\u2019 or \u2018property damage\u2019 which would not have occurred in whole or part  but for the actual, alleged, or threatened discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release, or escape of \u2018pollutants\u2019 at any time.\u201d  The Policy defines \u201cpollutant\u201d as \u201cany solid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant, including smoke, vapor, soot, fumes, acids, alkalis, chemicals and waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue before the Court in the coverage litigation was whether the construction dust at issue constitutes a \u201cpollutant\u201d within the meaning of the Policy, and thus, whether the construction dust was a \u201csolid, liquid, gaseous or thermal irritant or contaminant.\u201d  In construing an insurance policy under Georgia law, a court will first determine whether the policy language is clear and unambiguous.  If a policy is ambiguous, any ambiguities are strictly construed in favor of the insured and any exclusions, such as the Absolution Pollution Exclusion, should be construed strictly in favor of coverage.  Finally, ambiguous policies should be interpreted in accordance with the reasonable expectations of the insured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Love Lange<\/em> court considered decisions from the Georgia Supreme Court and the Georgia Court of Appeals to construe the language of the Absolution Pollution Exclusion at issue.  In the relevant Supreme Court cases, carbon monoxide gas and lead paint were held to be \u201cpollutants\u201d under identical policy language.  In the Court of Appeals cases, however, natural gas and nitrogen were held not <\/em>to be pollutants.  Specifically, the Court of Appeals held that natural gas was not an irritant or a contaminant because \u201cexposure to natural gas is not necessarily dangerous and does not automatically result in injury\u201d and it would \u201cviolate public policy to allow the insurer to sell a liability policy to cover a company whose main product is natural gas when that policy contains an exclusion for damages resulting from such natural gas.\u201d  Similarly, another Georgia Court of Appeals case held that nitrogen was not \u201cunambiguously a \u2018pollutant\u2019\u201d because \u201cnitrogen is present in large quantities in the ambient air\u201d and the insured, which \u201cwas in the business of storing tissue at low temperature using liquid nitrogen, reasonably expected that liability related to a nitrogen leak would be insured.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying those Georgia Supreme Court and Court of Appeals cases to the construction dust at issue in Love Lange<\/em> could have resulted in a determination that the bodily injury caused by construction dust was a covered claim \u2013 because the dust, like natural gas and nitrogen, did not contain any toxic or particularly harmful material, unlike carbon monoxide and lead paint.  Instead, the Love Lange<\/em> court held, \u201c\u2018a cloud of dust, even absent toxicity or other impurities, is a substance that was an \u2018irritant\u2019 and a \u2018contaminant\u2019 to Mr. Love and his respiratory system<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d  (emphasis added).  In short, the Love Lange <\/em>court did not interpret the policy based on application of the policy language and whether construction dust itself was an irritant or a contaminant but focused on whether the construction dust was annoying or irritating to a particular plaintiff.  In so doing, the Love Lange<\/em> court\u2019s broad interpretation of the Absolute Pollution Exclusion might abrogate coverage for any byproduct of construction, which could always be interpreted as an irritant or contaminant to any particular plaintiff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\u00a0Love Lange<\/em>\u00a0court entered its order at summary judgment; no notice of appeal was filed, and the underlying lawsuit has been dismissed by the parties.\u00a0 It is not clear whether any other courts will follow the\u00a0Love Lange\u00a0<\/em>analysis, but it is likely that insurers will cite the\u00a0Love Lange<\/em>\u00a0decision to support future denials of coverage for claims of bodily injury or property damage arising from dust which is a frequent product of the construction process.\u00a0 To guard against a potential gap in coverage created by the Absolute Pollution Exclusion in general liability policies, a contractor could consider procuring an Environmetal Liability policy which may bridge that gap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

When one of your cases is in need of a construction expert, estimates, insurance appraisal or umpire services in defect or insurance disputes – please call Advise & Consult, Inc. at 888.684.8305, or email experts@adviseandconsult.net<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Heather Howell Wright | Bradley A recent insurance coverage decision from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia highlights the difficulties of court interpretation of insurance policies and serves as a warning for contractors regarding application of the Absolute Pollution Exclusion in a General Liability Policy.\u00a0 The case involves injuries sustained… Continue reading Construction Dust is Pollution?<\/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":[10791,14,30],"tags":[11789,9895,4739,11790],"class_list":["post-900554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commercial-general-liability-policy","category-construction-2","category-general-liability-policy","tag-absolute-pollution-exclusion","tag-advise-consult","tag-commercial-general-liability-policy","tag-construction-dust","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nConstruction Dust is Pollution? 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