The Illinois Supreme Court has been asked to decide whether an insurance company has to defend and indemnify two companies in an underlying industrial pollutant suit and how state regulations play a role in a policy’s pollution exclusion, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit’s ruling Friday.
U.S. Circuit Judge Michael Y. Scudder said the state’s high court will have to decide on the scope of a standard-form commercial general liability policy’s pollution exclusion clause under state law. Griffith Foods International and Sterigenics brought the declaratory action in federal court against their insurer, National Union Fire Insurance Co. of Pittsburgh, seeking coverage in underlying litigation that the companies allegedly released toxins that contributed higher cancer rates for residents in Willowbrook, Illinois, according to Friday’s opinion.