New Insurance Decision Holds: No Aggregate Limits For Long-Tail Environmental Claims

We recently obtained a favorable court ruling on behalf of our client, Tecumseh Products Company LLC, on an insurance coverage issue that has vexed corporate policyholders for decades — whether primary insurance policies contain aggregate limits for long-tail environmental insurance claims. See Bedivere Insurance Co., et al. v. Tecumseh Products Company LLC, et al., (Michigan State Court, 2019) (decision).

1. The Aggregate Limits Issue for Environmental Claims

Tecumseh's situation was not atypical. For years, even before litigation started in 2017, Tecumseh's primary insurers and excess insurers conceded that their policies were at risk, but refused to pay a single dollar because of disagreement regarding whether or not the primary policies contained aggregate limits. If the primary policies did not contain aggregate limits, those policies are on the hook to pay their full per occurrence limits for each occurrence, meaning that there are multiple limits