Supreme Court of California

In an action arising from efforts to obtain insurance coverage for property damage liability imposed in a federal lawsuit as a result of discharges from a hazardous waste disposal facility, grant of defendant's motion for summary judgment is reversed where: 1) triable issues of fact exist as to whether the 1969 overflow fell within the meaning of the absolute pollution exclusion for watercourses contained in the insurance policy; 2) evidence the State should have known flooding was likely is insufficient to prove as an undisputed fact that the waste discharge in 1978 due to flooding was expected and therefore nonaccidental; and 3) there is a triable issue as to whether the cost of repairing the property damage from the 1969 and 1978 discharges can be quantitatively divided among the various causes of contamination.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/09/2009
• Published 03/09/2009

Judges

• WERDEGAR, J.

Court

• Supreme Court of California

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Bill Lockyer and Edmund G. Brown, Jr., Attorneys General, Gordon B. Burns, Deputy State Solicitor General, Darryl L. Doke and Jill Scally, Deputy Attorneys General;  Cotkin, Collins & Ginsburg, Cotkin & Collins, Roger W. Simpson, Las Vegas, NV, David W. Johnson, Jr.;   Law Offices of Daniel J. Schultz, Daniel J. Schultz, Tempe, AZ;  Anderson Kill & Olick, Robert M. Horkovich and Edward J. Stein, New York, NY, for Plaintiff and Appellant., Morgan, Lewis & Bokius, Michael Y. Horton, Jason K. Komorsky and David S. Cox, Los Angeles, for League of California Cities as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant., Winston & Strawn, Scott P. DeVries and Yelitza V. Dunham, San Francisco, for Aerojet-General Corporation as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant., Gauntlett & Associates, David A. Gauntlett, Irvine, and Eric R. Little, Irvine, CA, for United Policyholders, Consumer Federation of America and Center for Community Action & Environment as Amici Curiae on behalf of Plaintiff and Appellant.


• For Appellees:
  
• Nixon Peabody, Bruce E. Copeland and Alan S. Feiler, San Francisco, for Defendant and Respondent Allstate Insurance Company., Berkes Crane Robinson & Seal, Steven M. Crane, Los Angeles, and Barbara S. Hodous for Defendant and Respondent Columbia Casualty Company., Berman & Aiwasian, Deborah Aiwasian, Alan S. Berman and Steven P. Haskell, Los Angeles, for Defendant and Respondent Century Indemnity Company., Riedl, McCloskey & Waring and Andrew McCloskey, San Diego, for Defendant and Respondent Westport Insurance Company., Wiley Rein & Fielding, Wiley Rein, Laura A. Foggan, John C. Yang, Washington, DC;  Sinnott, Dito, Moura & Puebla, Randolph P. Sinnott, Los Angeles, and John J. Moura, San Francisco, for Complex Insurance Claims Litigation Association as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Duane Morris, William J. Baron and Joleen C. Lenihan, San Francisco, for Certain London Market Insurers and Great American Insurance Company as Amici Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents., Horvitz & Levy, Barry R. Levy and Peter Abrahams, Encino, for TIG Insurance Company as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendants and Respondents.