Does knowledge, as Insurance Code defines, need to be possessed by senior managers?
Section 533 of the Insurance Code provides that insurers are not liable for losses caused by the insured’s willful act. A recent case explored whether it should be the company’s senior managers possessing the knowledge that the provision requires.
In Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's, London et al. v. ConAgra Grocery Products Co. et al., the People – acting through the county counsel of Santa Clara, Alameda, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Mateo, Solano, and Ventura and through the city attorneys of Oakland, San Diego, and San Francisco – brought a complaint against former manufacturers of lead paint.
The underlying complaint alleged that the lead in paint and coatings in California homes and buildings created a public health crisis and that the lead paint manufacturers, despite knowing for almost a century that the use of lead was dangerous, created and/or helped with the creation of a public nuisance by promoting lead for interior and exterior use.
ConAgra Grocery Products Company, as W.P. Fuller & Co.’s successor; NL Industries, Inc.; and the Sherwin-Williams Company were found jointly and severally liable and were ordered to pay $1.15 billion into a fund dedicated to abating the nuisance.
The insurers argued that they had no duty to provide coverage for ConAgra’s payment to the abatement fund. As for ConAgra, it made the following arguments:
The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie, has rejected claims that he has withdrawn or rescinded the gazetted renaming of Graaff-Reinet to Robert Sobukwe Town, along with other geo...