{"id":771,"date":"2007-11-26T11:43:10","date_gmt":"2007-11-26T19:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bullivant.wpengine.com\/?p=771"},"modified":"2021-03-21T14:11:40","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T21:11:40","slug":"whats-all-the-stink-about-no-liability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/whats-all-the-stink-about-no-liability\/","title":{"rendered":"What&#8217;s all the stink about? No liability coverage for bad odors in California."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A San Francisco appellate court has confirmed that a pollution exclusion applies to claims for bodily injury and property damage caused by the release of foul and noxious odors. <u>Cold Creek Compost Inc. v. State Farm Fire &amp; Cas. Co.<\/u>, &#8211;Cal. Rptr.&#8211;(November 20, 2007).<\/p>\n<p>Neighbors in a two-mile radius sued Cold Creek Compost for nuisance, citing various consequences of the company&#8217;s composting operations. Cold Creek tendered its defense to State Farm, which agreed to defend under a reservation of rights. However, after a jury returned a verdict based solely on a &#8220;severe offensive odor&#8221; theory, State Farm declined to provide coverage, citing the policy&#8217;s pollution exclusion.<\/p>\n<p>A trial court granted summary judgment for State Farm, and the Court of Appeal affirmed. Acknowledging the somewhat narrow interpretation of the pollution exclusion adopted by the California Supreme Court in <u>MacKinnon v. Truck Ins. Exchange<\/u>, 31 Cal. 4<sup>th<\/sup> 635 (2003), the Court of Appeal nonetheless held that the claim proven against Cold Creek was within the ambit of the exclusion.<\/p>\n<p>The court&#8217;s ruling brings California in line with other jurisdictions finding no liability coverage for claims based on &#8220;smelly&#8221; operations.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]A San Francisco appellate court has confirmed that a pollution exclusion applies to claims for bodily injury and property damage caused by the release of foul and noxious odors. Cold Creek Compost Inc. v. State Farm Fire &amp; Cas. Co., &#8211;Cal. Rptr.&#8211;(November 20, 2007). Neighbors in a two-mile radius sued Cold Creek Compost for nuisance,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[198],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-insurance-coverage","tag-insights","authorormentioned-samuel-ruby","entry","no-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studioactiv8.com\/bullivant\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}