Seen at Business Insurance:
When a continuous pollution loss spans multiple policy periods, any liability insurer covering any policy period is liable for the entire loss up to their policy limits, a California appeals court ruled.
Monday’s finding by California’s 4th District Court of Appeals overturned a 2004 trial court’s "no-stacking" decision, which said the state of California, as a policyholder, had to choose one policy period and could only recover the general liability policy limits in effect for that period.[…]
In 1998, a federal court found the state liable for environmental damage and said it was responsible for past and future remediation costs, which California said could reach $700 million, court records indicate.
The article mentions that six insurers, who each wrote excess GL coverage for two or three years apiece, are potentially impacted by the ruling.
There’s nothing like starting off the year with a few million dollars’ reserve increase, right?
