A difficulty exists for insurance companies to defend ANY pollution exclusion that exists on the general liability policy due to language ambiguity. It is fair to say that policyholders might incur legal costs to force an insurance carrier into submission. Right now, in our opinion, the courts will lean toward siding with the policyholder in the State of Indiana. It is a very interesting situation. We are also anticipating some changes to the ISO Pollution Exclusion Form as a reaction to this latest ruling.
A recent article from the ‘Big I’ illustrates how the pollution exclusion is ambiguous and unenforceable.