« Iowa Court of Appeals' Recent Work Comp Decision |
Main Blog Page
| Kudos to the Iowa Legislature »
On February 23, 2007, the Iowa Supreme Court issued a decision entitled Bituminous Casualty Corp. v. Sand Livestock Systems, Inc. et al. This is a case that involves a legal question posed by a federal district court judge in Iowa. The case involves a pollution exclusion clause in an insurance contract between a business and an insurance carrier. Sand Livestock built a hog confinement building for another company. Prior to constructing this building, Sand Livestock purchased liability insurance from Bituminous. In the liability insurance contract, there was an exclusion for liability as a result of “pollution.”
During construction of the hog confinement facility, Sand Livestock installed a propane power washer in its facility. Unfortunately, that power washer resulted in carbon monoxide building up within the facility and an employee within that building ultimately was overcome and died as a result of the carbon monoxide poisoning. The employee’s widow sued Sand Livestock for negligence in its construction and design of the hog confinement. Sand Livestock sought insurance coverage from Bituminous. The insurance carrier denied liability because of the “pollution exclusion” in its insurance contract. The Iowa Supreme Court concluded that the insurance contract can and did unambiguously exclude pollution as covered and also defined the emission of gases such as carbon monoxide as being a “pollutant.” The Court did note consider a related argument about whether this exclusion went beyond the “reasonable expectations” of an insurance consumer such that it should not be enforced. This presented a factual issue for determination by the federal district court.
Posted by William H. Grell on March 8, 2007 6:58 AM
|
Permalink
