PA Natl Mut Casualty v. St. John, J., Aplts ( 2014 )

[J-37-2013][M.O. – Baer, J.]
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA
MIDDLE DISTRICT
PENNSYLVANIA NATIONAL MUTUAL : No. 86 MAP 2012
CASUALTY INSURANCE COMPANY :
: Appeal from the Order of the Superior
: Court at No. 277 EDA 2011 dated
V. : 11/28/11 affirming the order of the
: Chester County Court of Common
: Pleas, Civil Division, at No. 09-6388
JOHN D. ST. JOHN AND KATHY M. ST. : dated 12/20/10
JOHN, INDIVIDUALLY AND D/B/A :
THUNDER VALLEY FARM AND LPH :
PLUMBING AND HEATING, LLC AND : ARGUED: May 7, 2013
STOLTZFUS WELDING AND REPAIR :
:
:
APPEAL OF: JOHN D. ST. JOHN AND :
KATHY M. ST. JOHN :
DISSENTING OPINION
MR. JUSTICE SAYLOR DECIDED: December 15, 2014
I would dismiss this appeal as having been improvidently granted. My reasoning
follows.
In some lines of insurance law decisions, it is difficult to discern the degree to
which the courts are applying conventional principles of contract construction or layering
doctrinal innovations over salient policy terms based upon practical or equitable
considerations. See, e.g., J.H. France Refractories Co. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 534 Pa. 29,
38, 626 A.2d 502, 507 (1993) (holding that exposure to asbestos, as well as all phases
of an ensuing disease, independently trigger coverage). From my own point of view, I
believe that it is important to be clear about which of these approaches is being applied
in the course of judicial review and, if it is the latter, to provide an appropriate
justification for any departures from policy provisions and/or ordinary rules of
construction. In all events, as the majority notes, the analysis should at least begin with
the insurance policy in issue. See Majority Opinion, slip op. at 24 (“The goal in
construing and applying the language of an insurance contract is to effectuate the intent
of the parties as manifested by the language of the specific policy.”).
In the present matter, however, the appellants’ argumentation does not hew to
the policy language. For example, as a main premise within their arguments,
Appellants take the position that the “occurrence,” for purposes of the Penn National
commercial general liability policies, was a discrete one in the form of LPH Plumbing’s
negligent installation of the gray water collection and drinking water systems at Thunder
Valley Farm in early 2003. See Brief for Appellants at 18; see also Majority Opinion,
slip op. at 16. The policies, however, define “occurrence” to include “continuous or
repeated exposure to substantially the same general harmful conditions.” Majority
Opinion, slip op. at 6 (citation omitted). Thus, facially, the ongoing poisoning of a dairy
herd qualifies as a continuing “occurrence” under the policies, contrary to Appellants’
present depiction of a discrete occurrence. I believe that this sort of incongruity, when
attached to a critical premise, impacts this Court’s ability to fashion an opinion which
would offer meaningful guidance beyond the idiosyncratic parameters set by the
arguments.
A similar concern arises in relation to Appellants’ approach to a coverage-
triggering “manifestation” in their treatment of the first two issues accepted for review.
In this regard, their arguments appear to assume that coverage is triggered only by a
“first manifestation,” an assumption which does not appear to be borne out specifically
in terms of the Penn National policies. See, e.g., Brief for Appellants at 17 (“The
dispositive issue with respect to the first two questions . . . is: [w]hen did the effects of
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[the underlying negligence] first manifest in a way that would put a reasonable person
on notice of injury?” (emphasis added, internal quotation marks omitted)). Under
Section I(1)(b)(2) of the policies, coverage applies generally to property damage that
occurs during the policy period. See R.R. 387a, 405a. Significantly, there is no
specifically articulated basis to exclude coverage if similar property damage took place
during a previous policy period – unless LPH had knowledge of an occurrence or claim,
which it did not before 2006.1 Since Penn National stipulated that property damage
took place during each of the three policy periods, see Stipulation at 2 ¶14, R.R. 166a, I
am unable to discern an explicit reason deriving from unambiguous policy language
brought into issue in this appeal why coverage should not obtain under each such
period.2
I also have reservations concerning the majority’s analysis. For example, the
majority opinion often recognizes the conceptual difference between an “occurrence”
and a “trigger” of coverage (such as first manifestation). Compare, e.g., Majority
Opinion, slip op. at 6 (defining “occurrence” for purposes of the Penn National policies),
with id. at 23 (providing a different definition for “trigger of coverage”). Nevertheless, the
1
Indeed, as further discussed below, the majority is able to discern such a limitation
only by postulating about the “reasonable expectations” of the insurer and policyholder,
an analysis which I believe is substantially problematic in its own right. See infra.
2
To the degree that Appellants’ arguments accept a limiting principle deriving from pre-
existing impairment of property, it may also be observed that Appellants’ herd was
subject to change: during the 2003-2006 timeframe, new cows were rotated into the
herd and experienced adverse effects due to their exposure to contaminated water, see
N.T., June 10, 2010, at 74-75, and calves were born with deformities and complications
requiring surgery to the maternity cow. See id. at 35-36, 52-54, 77-78. Under these
circumstances, to the degree to which the herd is being conceptualized as a single unit
of property, this would seem to me to represent an abstraction from the facts that
appears problematic relative to any present undertaking to clarify Pennsylvania
insurance law.
[J-37-2013][M.O. – Baer, J.] - 3
majority cites affirmatively to cases which conflate these insurance-law concepts. See,
e.g., id. at 28-29 (relying upon D’Auria v. Zurich Insurance Co., 352 Pa. Super. 231,
507 A.2d 857 (1986), for the proposition that “[a]n occurrence happens when the
injurious effects of the negligent act first manifest themselves in a way that would put a
reasonable person on notice of injury” (emphasis in original)). Of course, occurrence
and manifestation for purposes of the present case must be different, because the
parties have accepted that the salient “occurrence” was the negligent systems
installation, and the manifestation relates to the later-ensuing impairments to Appellants’
dairy herd.
More broadly, given the constraints arising from the manner in which this appeal
has been presented, the majority opinion should not be read for the proposition that the
policy language in issue actually must be taken as either establishing a first-
manifestation rule or a multiple trigger regime within the purview of the J.H. France
decision. Those are merely the two alternatives presented to the Court, neither of
which, I believe, necessarily tracks the language of the insurance policies or flows from
an appropriate construction of ambiguous policy language per application of
conventional principles of contract law.
Indeed, the majority ultimately discerns a critical ambiguity in the policy
language, but it nevertheless declines to apply the rule of construction (which it
otherwise acknowledges should pertain) that “the policy is to be construed in favor of
the insured to further the contract’s prime purpose of indemnification and against the
insurer, as the insurer drafts the policy, and controls coverage,” Majority Opinion, slip
op. at 24 (quoting 401 Fourth St., Inc. v. Investors Ins. Grp., 583 Pa. 445, 455, 879 A.2d
166, 171 (2005)). See id. at 35-41. In this regard, the majority recognizes that Penn
National stipulated that Appellants’ property damage arising from exposure to the
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contaminated water took place during the coverage period of each of its policies. See
Stipulation at 2-3, ¶¶14, 25. The majority further acknowledges that, under these
circumstances, the policies could be construed to support Appellants’ multiple-trigger
theory per the third issue accepted for review. See Majority Opinion, slip op. at 36.
Still, the majority refers to the parties’ “reasonable expectations” to defeat such
interpretation and to adopt the construction favored by the insurance company. See id.
In this line of the majority’s reasoning, it is not clear whether the phrase
“reasonable expectations” is being used in a colloquial or a technical sense, given it is
an insurance-law term of art. The majority’s expression appears aimed at employing
contract principles pursuant to a reasonable-expectations theory, whereas that rubric
originated as a means of avoiding what contract precepts would otherwise dictate.3 In
all events, again, resolving any perceived ambiguity in favor of the insurance company
is in tension with the established precept that ambiguities in insurance policies generally
are to be construed in favor of the insured.4
3
See, e.g., Collister v. Nationwide Life Ins. Co., 479 Pa. 579, 584-95, 388 A.2d 1346,
1348-54 (1978); Brakeman v. Potomac Ins. Co., 472 Pa. 66, 72, 371 A.2d 193, 196
(1977). See generally Robert E. Keeton, Insurance Law Rights at Variance with Policy
Provisions, 83 HARV. L. REV. 961, 967 (1970) (suggesting that giving effect to an
insured’s expectations is reasonable, “even though painstaking study of the policy
provisions would have negated those expectations,” because insurance policies are
contracts of adhesion drafted by the insurer or an insurance industry organization);
Keene Corp. v. Ins. Co. of N. Am., 667 F.2d 1034, 1042 n.12 (D.C. Cir. 1981) (same).
4
The majority suggests that LPH Plumbing and Penn National jointly drafted the
policies. See Majority Opinion, slip op. at 37 (referencing the time “[w]hen LPH
Plumbing and Penn National drafted the Penn National policies”). However, the policies
– which were introduced into the record as trial exhibits, see N.T., June 10, 2010, at 13-
14 – appear to be standard form insurance policies issued by Insurance Services Office,
Inc., see R.R. 387a-402a, 405a-428a, with the identity of the insured, the policy limits,
and the coverage periods reflected on separate declarations pages. See id. at 381a-
386a, 403a-404a.
[J-37-2013][M.O. – Baer, J.] - 5
More importantly, I am not as certain as the majority that the multiple-trigger
concept cannot have any application in the scenario presently before the Court. One of
our sister States has found the theory to obtain in a very similar situation, see Wis. Elec.
Power Co. v. Cal. Union Ins. Co., 419 N.W.2d 255, 258 (Wis. Ct. App. 1987) (applying
the multiple-trigger concept where a herd of dairy cows was harmed over a twelve-year
period by stray voltage from a nearby power plant), and it has been utilized, albeit
sometimes under a “continuous occurrence” label, in fairly analogous situations
involving environmental pollution – where, like here, the cause of damage is hidden and
the damage itself is progressive and continuous.5
I also do not find the majority’s attempt to distinguish or limit J.H. France entirely
convincing. The majority does not analyze J.H. France on its terms, but observes that
the decision referenced Keene Corp. v. Insurance Co. of North America, 667 F.2d 1034
(D.C. Cir. 1981). The majority then notes that Keene identified a policy consideration
arising in asbestos litigation that does not directly pertain in the current matter – namely,
that application of the first-manifestation rule could result in mass cancellation of
insurance policies. There is nothing in J.H. France, however, that can reasonably be
construed as limiting the decision to circumstances in which mass policy cancellation
might otherwise occur. Indeed, although J.H. France cites and quotes several
5
See, e.g., Pub. Serv. Co. of Colo. v. Wallis & Cos., 986 P.2d 924, 935 (Colo. 1999);
Outboard Marine Corp. v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 670 N.E.2d 740, 750 (Ill. Ct. App. 1996);
Boston Gas Co. v. Century Indem. Co., 910 N.E.2d 290, 316 (Mass. 2009);
EnergyNorth Natural Gas v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, 934 A.2d 517, 522 (N.H.
2007); cf. Mo. Pac. R.R. Co. v. Int’l Ins. Co., 679 N.E.2d 801, 807 (Ill. Ct. App. 1997)
(employing the “continuous occurrence” rubric where workers suffered hearing loss
attributable to many years of exposure to high noise levels).
[J-37-2013][M.O. – Baer, J.] - 6
passages of Keene, it does not cite, quote, or even mention the portion of Keene on
which the majority presently relies.6
Finally, and perhaps most importantly in terms of my position that the case
should be dismissed, I am not sure that the “multiple triggers” rubric represents the most
appropriate overlay for the argument that, per their policy terms construed in
accordance with applicable rules of contract construction, coverage was available to
Appellants under multiple Penn National policies. In this regard, again, I believe that the
Court’s application of ordinary principles is negatively impacted by the manner in which
this appeal has evolved.
6
In an opinion approved by this Court, the Superior Court identified the public-policy
aspect of Keene as representing an important basis supporting the multiple-trigger rule
in latent disease cases. See Consulting Eng’rs, Inc. v. Ins. Co. of N. Am., 710 A.2d 82,
87 (Pa. Super. 1998), aff’d on basis of Superior Court opinion, 560 Pa. 247, 743 A.2d
911 (2000) (per curiam). However, Consulting Engineers did not suggest that latent
diseases are the only types of scenarios in which the rule could ever apply. Indeed
there was no need in that matter to identify the contours of the doctrine since a single
point in time was easily ascertainable as the moment when all of the damage was
inflicted. As such, I do not read Consulting Engineers as foreclosing application of the
multiple trigger doctrine more widely than in the asbestos arena.
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