By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//March 17, 2015//
Wisconsin Supreme Court
Civil
Insurance – CGL policies – pollution exclusions
The escape of natural gas from a damaged pipe constitutes a pollution condition under a CGL policy’s pollution exclusion.
“[T]o qualify as a pollution condition under Chartis’s CPL policy, the contaminant must also be released in concentrations above those ‘naturally present in the environment.’ In the instant case, the natural gas released at the site of the explosion and fire indisputably occurred in concentrations above those ‘naturally found in the environment.’ The escape of natural gas from the damaged pipe was, therefore, a pollution condition under Chartis’s CPL policy.”
Reversed.
2013AP1303 Acuity v. Chartis Specialty Ins. Co.
Abrahamson, C.J.