Montana awarded $97.8M in asbestos insurance claim case
The insurance-related dispute concerned underlying litigation against the state based on its regulatory role.
An insurer must pay an asbestos claim and assorted costs to the state of Montana as part of a comprehensive general liability policy that the company issued for the years 1973-1975, the Montana Supreme Court ruled.
Affirming a lower court’s judgment, this decision essentially affirms a ruling from March 2018, against the insurer, a Berkshire Hathaway unit. The court held that the state knew about hazardous conditions, injuries and deaths related to a vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana, since 1942.
The mine was owned and operated by W.R. Grace and Co. and its predecessors. The insurance-related dispute concerned underlying litigation against the state based on its regulatory role.
In August 2019, the lower court held that National Indemnity was obligated to pay the state $97.8 million. According to court documents, this obligation consisted of $26.8 million for the remainder of a decade-old global settlement, $29.6 million to indemnify the state for settlements paid to claimants exposed to toxins during the policy period, $4.9 million in accompanying prejudgment interest, and $17.4 million in attorneys fees and defense costs for the litigation spanning from 2005-2019.
The court remanded two issues back to the lower court to decide on. First, the number of occurrences under the policy and the calculation of policy limits; and second, the eligibility of claimants exposed to asbestos only prior to the policy period.
Insurance Coverage Law Center editor’s note: The insurance industry regularly has to grapple with the issue of asbestos, especially since injury resulting from asbestos exposure takes years to manifest. Insurance companies may change hands from the time between the exposure and the injury, and courts are charged with determining which insurance company must respond to asbestos claims.
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