The question of how broadly the Indiana Supreme Court’s ruling in American States Insurance Company v. Kiger, 662 N.E. 2d 945 (Ind. 1996) can be interpreted was further decided on March 25, 2010 when the United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit reached a decision in the West Bend Mutual Insurance Company v. U.S. Fidelity and Guaranty Company case. The original Kiger ruling enabled insured parties to avail themselves of a defense against environmental claims after insurance carriers started using Absolute Pollution Exclusionary language in their policies (roughly post 1985-1986) because the Supreme Court ruled that Pollution Exclusion was ambiguous. This appellate decision is a caution to those owners and operators of retail gasoline service stations, who have been waiting to have their properties tested for pollutants in reliance on the effect of the Kiger ruling. They will now be carefully reviewing the pollution exclusionary and definitions clauses in their policies to determine whether the Kiger or West Bend rules apply to their situations. Continue reading “U.S. Circuit Court Finds Limits to Indiana’s Kiger Decision In Federated’s Unambiguous Policy Language”
