2009AP2768 Hirschhorn v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co.

Listen to this article

Insurance
Homeowners policies; pollution exclusion

Bat guano is not a pollutant under a homeowner’s policy’s pollution exclusion clause.

“The policy definitions of ‘pollutant’ and ‘waste’ are further informed by the policy’s exclusionary clause itself, which omits coverage for the ‘discharge, release, escape, seepage, migration or dispersal of pollutants.’ None of those terms particularly suggest the movement of excrement. Rather, the bodily processes by which wastes such as carbon dioxide, urine, or feces move out of an organism would more commonly be described as respiration, elimination, excretion, or some other term suggesting a biological process. Thus, at best, the clause’s action words do not suggest to the reader a biological process, and they may even suggest that biological processes are not part of the exclusion. Therefore, because a person might reasonably interpret the pollution exclusion as not contemplating bat guano, coverage is not excluded.”

Reversed and Remanded.

Recommended for publication in the official reports.

2009AP2768 Hirschhorn v. Auto-Owners Ins. Co.

Dist. III, Oneida County, Mangerson, J., Hoover, J.

Attorneys: For Appellant: Hirschhorn, Joel, Coral Gables, FL; For Respondent: Klingberg, Douglas J., Wausau

Full Text