Hunton & Williams insurance partner Syed Ahmad commented in a July 19, 2017, Law360 article concerning the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ recent decision in Olin Corp. v. OneBeacon America Insurance. In the decision, which is the subject of a July 26, 2017, Hunton blog post, the Second Circuit agreed with Olin that its payments toward remediating contamination at five manufacturing sites implicated a series of excess policies issued by Lamorak Insurance Co., formerly OneBeacon.
The ruling adopted the principles articulated by New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, in last year’s landmark Viking Pump decision. Hunton & Williams LLP partner Syed Ahmad noted that the ruling appeared to be based on specific language in Lamorak’s policies, but said the appellate panel’s extensive discussion of Viking Pump indicates that insurers whose policies contain different language will have a tough time fighting the all sums regime in future cases.
“[T]he court relied on much broader principles and cited extensively to the reasoning in Viking Pump, which calls into question if similar efforts to avoid all sums will be accepted even in cases with different policy language,” Ahmad said.