Farmers Mutual Fire Insurance v. New Jersey Property-Liability Insurance

This case involves the appropriate allocation of costs for the cleanup of environmental contamination of property when one of two insurance companies on the risk has become insolvent.

In Owens-Illinois, Inc. v. United Insurance Co., we recognized the difficulty of determining the degree of harm caused by contamination within any particular year from the time of toxic exposure to manifestation. 138 N.J. 437, 457-59, 650 A.2d 974 (1994). We treated the progressive damage as an occurrence triggering the insurance policies in each of the intervening years. Id. at 478-79, 650 A.2d 974. We…