Port of Port Angeles sues 22 insurance carriers over environmental liabilites
Posted on January 15, 2015
As of January 12th, The Port of Port Angeles officially filed suit in Clallam County Superior Court, naming 22 insurance companies the Port says failed to properly represent and defend them from environmental liability claims. Some of the named companies have coverage dates that go back to 1961.
The claims involve what the Port has spent on environmental cleanup involved with the MTA, K Ply, and Western Harbor Sites. The state Department of Ecology has named the Port as being partially responsible for removing potentially harmful substances from these sites. The Port filed the lawsuit to clarify liability issues.
The Nadler Law Group of Seattle will represent the Port in its lawsuit. The suit alleges that insurance companies who insured the Port breached their obligations by failing to comply with state regulations, failing to fulfill their duties to investigate the Port’s insurance claims, failure to determine coverage, and failure to compensate the Port for its expenses regarding existing environmental liabilities.
The suit lists three relief claims it hopes the court will find in favor of the Port; damages for the Port’s costs of what it has spent on its environmental claims, a ruling that the insurance companies should have covered those costs, and the recovery of attorney’s fees and costs involved with this lawsuit.
Cost savings to the Port is unclear as much of the clean up costs and apportionment of those costs is currently unresolved.