Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Insurers in Cleanup Suit

Date: November 1, 2001

Source: News Room

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has affirmed an intermediate appellate court decision in favor of London Market Insurers and the Home Insurance Company, stating that under Pennsylvania law, an insurer may void an insurance policy when an insured company secures the policy through fraudulent misrepresentations. Rohm and Haas originally filed suit against its insurers in the Court of Common Pleas for Philadelphia County, seeking coverage for the cleanup costs of two sites, including its Whitmoyer Laboratories site. Costs for the Whitmoyer Laboratories site were estimated to exceed $90 million. The jury ruled in favor of the insurers as to both sites. The Court found that shortly after acquiring Whitmoyer Laboratories in 1964, Rohm and Haas discovered considerable arsenic pollution of the soil and the groundwater, but did not disclose the problem to its excess insurers for almost 24 years.

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