United States First Circuit

In action against defendant-insurer for declaratory relief as to defendant's obligations under insurance policies issued to plaintiff and damages for breach thereof, related to costs of remediating environmental contamination, judgment is affirmed, where the district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that: 1) given the limitations of the original jury verdict, it could not serve as a predicate for employing a fact-based allocation; 2) the time on the risk method is the most appropriate and justiciable means of allocation was reasonable; 3) plaintiff should be judicially estopped from contradicting its prior statements at trial that contamination was continuous from the time when plant operations began until the time of trial; 4) plaintiff's motions seeking judgment as a matter of law on the owned property exclusion should be denied; and 5) the verdict should be vacated as being against the clear weight of the evidence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/18/2013
• Published 01/18/2013

Judges

• HOWARD

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel