ELR Citation: 42 ELR 20263
No(s). 11-4055-cv (2d Cir. Dec 19, 2012)

The Second Circuit reversed a lower court decision that an insurance company need not indemnify a manufacturing company for environmental contamination that occurred at one of its facilities in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The insurer issued the company two excess insurance policies that had a $30.3 million attachment point. The lower court entered judgment in favor of the insurer because the company had failed to raise a triable issue of material fact regarding whether perchlorate spills during the policy periods were sufficient to cause $30.3 million in damage. But the policies require the insurer to indemnify the company not only for property damage that occurred during the policy period, but also for property damage arising from covered occurrences that continued after the policy periods. As a result, the policies treat three decades of perchlorate exposure and the damage it created as a single, multi-year occurrence. Based on the record before the court, $72.6 million in damage falls within the coverage of the 1966-1969 policy, while $62.7 million falls within the coverage of the 1969-1972 policy. Because these figures exceed the $30.3 million attachment points, the lower court's decision was vacated and remanded.