A recent lawsuit reversed in the New York Court of Appeals suggests that insurers who add pollution exclusions for jobsite pollutants such as paint fumes in their liability policies could still have to pay up when a worker is injured by that pollution. The court noted a “total pollution exclusion” in the policy of TIG Insurance was intended to protect a company from liability for long-term environmental damage–not to exclude liability for injury to individuals. In this case the individual was a man who claimed to have suffered injuries from excessive paint fumes while working in an office building.
