In the resolution of a coverage dispute between two professional liability insurers, Judge Posner recently had occasion to parse the meaning of the metaphysical phrase “arising from” in an exclusion to claims-made coverage and to limn the teleological contours of claims made coverage.
In James River Ins. Co. v. Kemper Cas. Ins. Co., 2009 WL 3447447 (7th Cir. Oct. 28, 2009), the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court’s holding that a prior-policy exclusion in a professional liability insurance policy did not bar one insurer’s claim for contribution from another insurer for the expense of defending and settling a malpractice claim against a law firm that had been insured in successive policy years by the insurers.
Kemper issued the insured a claims-made professional…
In Emhart Industries, Inc. v. Century Indemnity Co., 559 F.3d 57 (1st Cir. 2009), the EPA designated the insured, Emhart, a Potentially Responsible Party (“PRP”) to remediate the contamination at a Superfund site in North Providence, Rhode Island. Emhart made a demand for coverage on its insurers, which included Century Indemnity Company, North River Insurance Company, and OneBeacon America Insurance Company. Emhart sought to recover its environmental-remediation and defense costs.
The Superfund site had been operated from 1944 to 1968 by various parties. Emhart is the corporate successor to the final operator of the site. In 1998, the EPA discovered dioxin on the site. On February 28, 2000, the EPA identified Emhart as one of five PRPs, requiring Emhart to pay…
St. Paul Mercury Insurance Co. v. Northern States Power Co., 2009 WL 2596074 (Minn. Ct. App. Aug. 25, 2009), illustrates that legal standards can prove to be mutable and protean in application, perhaps calling into question Judge Posner’s epigrammatic observation that “a standard that takes account of all relevant considerations will produce fewer arbitrary differences in outcome.” Irizarry v. Board of Educ. of Chicago, 251 F.3d 604, 611 (7th Cir. 2001). Ostensibly applying a significant contacts choice of law standard, the Minnesota court held in a 2-1 decision that Minnesota’s loss allocation rule applied to an environmental remediation claim that concerned the operations of a Wisconsin manufacturer at four sites in Wisconsin.
The insured, Northern States Power Company (NSP-WI), is…
