In its September 22, 2014 opinion in Pioneer Exploration, L.L.C. v. Steadfast Insurance
Co. 767 F.3d 503 (5th Cir. 2014), the Fifth Circuit denied
coverage for damages resulting from a well blowout, concluding that
the insured's legal right to occupy property was sufficient to
exclude coverage under the property damage and blended pollution
exclusions relating to property owned, rented or occupied by the
insured. Justice Higginbotham's opinion suggests that an
insured's legal right to occupy the property, as opposed to its
physical occupancy of the property, may be sufficient to preclude
coverage under an owned-property-type exclusion.
The suit arose from a blowout at a gas well operated by insured,
Pioneer Exploration, L.L.C. in Cameron Parish, Louisiana. Pioneer
was operating the well pursuant to a 1958 mineral lease. The well
was located on a half-acre of the property covered by the mineral
lease. In 2008, the well suffered a blowout causing property damage
to
