Category: Blog

The Environmental Corner
By: John C. Bird, P.G., Vice President of EnviroForensics

The City of Modesto, California, began monitoring ground water in September 1984 to test 25 percent of its municipal water supply, as required by California Assembly Bill 1803. Of the 24 wells tested, 12 wells were found to be contaminated. Municipal Supply Well #11 was found to be contaminated with 16.7 parts per billion (ppb) of perchloroethylene (PCE); the State Maximum contamination Level is 5 ppb. The well was taken out of service. The City obtains all its drinking water from wells. An estimated 142,000 people obtain drinking water from Modesto municipal wells within 3 miles of the site. The California Department of Health Services (CDHS)  and the Stanislaus County Environmental Health Department have identified Halford’s Cleaners,  which is less than 0.5 mile upgradient of Municipal Supply Well #11, as a likely source of the PCE  contamination. These agencies found up to 176,000 ppb of PCE in soil at Halford’s where a buried storage tank was being excavated and determined that Halford’s discharge to the sewer was contaminated. CDHS also found 84.6 ppb of PCE in a private well adjacent to Halford’s. Not long after, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) took over the investigation and cleanup under the Superfund Program. This individual site is currently being remediated under S EPA control. The Halford’s Cleaners site was just the tip of the iceberg in Modesto. Continue reading “The Road Goes On Forever And The Trial Never Ends”

Time is running out for dry cleaners who purchased their business insurance policies from subsidiaries of the Kemper Insurance Company in the 1970’s and 1980’s. While many state courts have ruled that the qualified pollution exclusions in these vintage general liability policies will respond to property damage claims occasioned by solvent spills, dry cleaners who have not yet filed claims may soon find that the value of these policies has dramatically diminished. Continue reading “As Lumbermens Mutual Liquidation Looms, Dry Cleaners Will Scramble to Find Old Policies”

We have long lived in a country where most insurance policies have been comprised of standard forms. Most general liability insurance “products” issued by the same insurer to small businesses throughout the United States have long been uniform within a given industry. For instance, if two similarly situated small businessmen in a given state purchased general liability policies from the same insurer during the same policy period, they could reasonably expect that their policies were comprised of the same standard forms. Continue reading “Wouldn’t a Product Liability Analysis of Historical CGL Policies Issued to Small Businesses Be A More Reasonable Approach?”

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As Seen in the September 2009 Issue of Western Cleaner & Launderer
Written By: Steve Henshaw, President & CEO of EnviroForensics.

I heard from some readers that my last few articles were a little too technical and in addressing those comments, I’ve decided to go back to basics.  That is to say, what are basic concerns that dry cleaners have?  Since this is the Environmental Corner and staying with that topic, it is my experience that one of those basic concerns that dry cleaners might have deals with the questions, “How am I going to pay for an environmental investigation and clean-up?”  Old insurance policies may be an answer. Continue reading “Using Old Insurance to Cover Investigation and Clean-up Costs”

The dry cleaner had gone to the attic in search of his old business package policies. He explained that he had no idea before visiting an attorney that these old expired insurance policies could be of any use to him. Since they were package policies, they contained more than one line of insurance. Parts of the policy provided coverage against damage to his building, against break-ins, storm damage and even workers compensation coverage. As far as he knew, all of this coverage had long ago expired. Why would he still have copies of these old policies? There was no reason, he thought, that he would have kept them. They would have to be in a box or two that he had neglected to put in the dumpster. Continue reading “How Insurance Archeology Can Assist Dry Cleaners When Environmental Contamination Claims Threaten Their Business”

Insurance archeology may be the science of recreating past insurance programs by assembling various types of evidence of insurance contracts, but the focus and methods used by different insurance archeologists vary. Unlike other disciplines for which standards and methods have been agreed upon by associations organized by practitioners, insurance archeology has yet to become standardized. The result is that various law firms, risk management firms and consultants provide different sorts of services under the same heading. All practitioners have the same purpose: the location and retrieval of evidence of historical insurance policies. Where they deviate is in (1) where they go to find old insurance records and (2) what they do once they go there to retrieve the policy evidence. Continue reading “Insurance Archeology is More than Insurance Audits”

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Drycleaners News June 2009 Issue

How many drycleaners do you know who own their business and building? Some drycleaners may have thought they had an asset, only to find out that the building is contaminated and cleaning it up will cost a lot of money.

Many drycleaners have always followed the law and managed a clean and respectable business, but they later find out that the rules they had followed for years have become more stringent. Other drycleaners would like to eventually pass the business on to their children but are afraid of handing them an environmental liability. Continue reading “Locate And Keep Old Insurance Policies Safe to Protect Assets”

The New Jersey Appellate Division ruled recently in Myron Corp. v. Atlantic Mutual Ins. Corp that N.J. Rule of General Application 4:42-9(a)(6) provides for the award of counsel fees even if the court action takes place in a state outside of New Jersey. In an apparent effort to discourage forum shopping, the Appellate court’s ruling was made in a case where a policyholder sought to recover attorney’s fees and court costs from defending against its insurance company’s two out-of-state declaratory judgment actions. Continue reading “NJ Court Awards Policyholder Counsel Fees for Dec Action Brought Elsewhere”

Those west coast policyholders whose historical primary insurance carriers have since become insolvent may wish to take notice of a recent Ninth Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision styled California Ins. Co. v. Stimson Lumber Co., 2009 WL 1035238 (9th Cir. (Oregon) April 16, 2009). In Stimson, the appellate court was called on to reconsider district court rulings concerning how defense costs would be allocated in a situation where the policyholder’s primary insurer had become insolvent, but an umbrella policy had been purchased to overlay the risk for that particular policy period. Continue reading “Horizontal Allocation is Ninth Circuit Choice in Insolvent Gap Case; But Insured Not Required to Pay Share of Costs”

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After a couple decades as an insurance archeologist, I find that my business clients too often take their commercial general liability insurance policies at face value. The word has been out for some time that old business insurance policies are valuable, but as to their actual value, it is best not to trust your own eyes. Continue reading “Pollution Exclusions: Some Reasons Not to Believe Your Own Eyes”