Written By David O’Neill, Director of Investigations, PolicyFind
The New Mexico Supreme Court has ruled that the term “sudden” in the “sudden and accidental” exception to general liability policy pollution exclusion is ambiguous and as such does not limit covered occurrences only to abrupt releases of pollutants.
In United Nuclear Corp. v. Allstate Ins. Co., No. 32, 939 (N.M. August 23, 2012), New Mexico’s high court determined that general liability insurance policies issued to an uranium mining company in the 1970’s and early 1980’s could be applied to address claims for the cost of cleaning pollution at several uranium mines it operated in that state during those years. One of the claims involved a 1979 spill of 94 million gallons of tailings pond liquids into a nearby river, a record release of radioactive pollutants. Continue reading “New Mexico Supreme Court Finds Coverage in Pre-1986 Policy Language; Meaning of “Sudden” in Pollution Exclusion is “Unexpected” not “Abrupt””