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| John M. Sylvester |
In a
significant decision for Pennsylvania insurance law, the Pennsylvania
Commonwealth Court has ruled that a “continuous trigger” of coverage applies to
long-term, latent environmental property damage claims.
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| John M. Hagan |
Insurance Co. v. Johnson Matthey Inc., a unanimous panel of the
court rejected an attempt by the insurer, Pennsylvania Manufacturers’
Association Insurance Company (“PMA”), to apply a “first manifestation” trigger
of coverage for the environmental coverage claim of the policyholder, Johnson
Matthey Inc. (“Johnson Matthey”), under “occurrence-based” policies that PMA
issued to Johnson Matthey in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
Rather, the Court observed that the record of the case presented a long latency
of continuing, undetected property damage taking place during the PMA policy
periods, which supported a continuous trigger throughout that latency period,
such as that adopted by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for asbestos bodily
injury claims in its seminal decision, J.H.
France Refractories Co. v. Allstate Insurance Co.
The Commonwealth Court rejected PMA’s argument that a recent Pennsylvania
Supreme Court decision, Pennsylvania
National Mutual Casualty Insurance Co. v. St. John, which had
applied a “first manifestation” trigger to a non-environmental property damage
coverage claim, should be followed in this case.
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